The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-01 00:00:00

THE HOOSAC TUNNEL.

Thirty miles west of Greenfield, in the north-
west corner of iSlassachusetts, rises the Hoosac
Mountain. At its east base flows the Deerfield
River through a small but beautiful valley, with
steep hills rising around to a height of 1,000 feet..
Two miles from the west base is North Adams, in
a fertile valley, overshadowed by thJSaddle Moun-
tain, the highest peak in Massachusetts. The

Hoosac tunnel is intended to continue the railway
direct from Troy to Boston, by Greenfield, and the
work was undertaken in 1850 by the Troy and
Greenfield Railroad Company, the State of Massa-
chusetts aiding with a loan of $2,000,000. The
Railroad Company failed in 1862, and upon the
State fell the burden of the task. In 1866, by an
Act of the Legislature, the general supervision, both
of the tunnel and of the Troy, and Greenfield Rail-
road was imposed on the Governor and Council,
directing them, at least once a year, to visit and in-
spect the works, a visit, judging by the last, which
is made a pic-nic, at which the members get jolly, the.
boys who saw them crying that the liquor law was
recently repealed. The same Act appointed Benj.
IL La Trobe, of Baltimore, consulting engineer of
the tunnel. A contract was made to complete the
road to the eastern entrance by July 15, 1868, and
it was leased to the Fitchburg, and the Vermont,
and Massachusetts Railroads at an annual rent of
$30,000. The read is now graded nearly to the
Hoosac mountain from Shelburne Falls. The rails
will be laid through Charkmont now that the frost
has left the ground. We may here mention that in
1867 the gross earnings of the road were $534,511 ; the
running expenses $193,122, leaving a net profit of
$41,422. The length of the tunnel is 25,031 feet,
or nearly five miles ; the dimensions being 24 feet
wide by 22 high for a distance of 2,400 feet. From
the east portal nearly 5,000 feet are finished
through what is termed mica slate, with fine
seams of white and bluish flinty quartz. For
a short space near the entrance only does
the water drip, further in the tunnel is dry and well
ventilated, presenting a carious sight as the 170 men
employed are approached, their lights shining at
various altitudes, giving the semblance of an
urinated village in a narrow ravine. A correspon-
dent of the San Francisco Mining and Scientific
Press writes an interesting account of this work,
more especially describing the liiirleigh Drill now
employed in the tunnel. There are eight air-engine
drills thundering away in various directions, at
from 200 to 300 strokes per minute, each striking
from the hard rock a meteoric shower. This, a
mile within the mountain, added to the blasts of

the escaping compressed air, produce an extra-
ordinary effect. Beyond the 2,400 feet from
the east entrance, the tunnel was at first
15 feet wile x 6 feet high, but this has
bee❑ enlarged to 21 by 81. The mountain presents
a sort of saddle aspect in profile, the highest point,
the west summit, being 1,710 feet above the tunnel,
and the east summit 1,219, the direction being
almost due east and west. The work finished in
March, from the April report of the State engineer,
W. P. Grainger, was as follows :

East end heading ~
%Vest shaft—east heading
West shaft —west heading
West end ~, ~,
West cad arch ~.
Well No. 4 ... ...

Ailvance. Total.
• 112 foot 4,951 feet
▪ 31 „ 1,396 „
• „ 694

18
••• _ ~

653

~. 17 .„
... 22 „

612
207 „
533 „

Depth of central shaft

DISTANCE YET TO GO.
From east and heading to central shaft 7,83G feet
From central shaft to e.tst heading we-4 shaft.„ 8,3i11 „
From west heading west shalt to well No. 4 232 „
From well No. 4to west ending heading ...... 861 „
Fromn bottom of well No. 4to grade
From bottom of central shaft to grade
Mr. Charles Burleigh's drill at first proved a failure
by reason of constant breakage ; but discerning the
remedies he has rectified the errors, and the ma-
chine has already saved the State $lOO,OOO. The
drills are attached to carriage frames over 20 feet
in length, six feet high,.by eight feet four in. wide,
one on each side the tunnel, fronting the heading.
When in operation the frame is raised so as to rest
its entire weight upon jack screws. On the forward
end of each frame four or more drills are attached,
with universal motion. Each machine is a com-
plete engine, working independently, and receiving
its power (conlensed air) through a 11-in. rubber
hose. Weight of machine about 400 lbs. It contains
80 pieces. The machines are of 3-horse power, and
when in perfect order, with a pressure of 50 pounds
to the inch, are capable of dealing from 250 to 300
blows per minute. Considerable repairing is re-
quired, but by a quick method of adjusting the ma-
chines, and an extra supply of the same, all serious
delay is avoided. They can be operated by
steam. Air being quicker than steam, thirty
pounds of the former is there considered equi-
valent in effect to forty pounds of the lat-
ter. It is more than fifteen months since these
drills were introduced into the tunnel. In four
weeks one machine, without repairing, working but
about six hours out of the twenty-four, including
the time of changing the drill-points and positions,
has made 2,250 feet of 2i-inch hole. Alvah
Crocker, chief superintendent, reports that, " not-
withstanding the size of the heading has been in-
creased, from 6x15 feet to Bix24 feet, the actual
progress for the last seven months has been 116 feet,
against an average of 55 feet during the last
seven months of hand labour. By hand drill, in
the enlargement, two men average about 8 feet of
1k-inch hole in 11 hours." In 6 hours the ma-
chines drill holes enough to employ the balance of
the 24 hours in blasting and clearing away the
rock knocked down. By hand labour ps per
cubic yard has been the cost of excavating rock at
the heading ; it is now accomplished at less
than eight dollars with the aid of the machines.
This machine is so constructed that the piston bar
is the only part of the machine which receives the
shock resulting from the blow upon the rock. This
piston bar, to which the drill point is directly
attached, is made from a solid bar of cast steel. It
is provided with an automatic feed and rotating de-
vice, by means of which the drill is partially ro-
tated at each stroke, and advanced toward the rock
as required. The machines vary in size -from 50
inches length, and cross sections of 12 x 15 inches
to 84 inches, and cross section of 14 x 16 inches,
and will feed forward, without change'of drill points,
from 30 to 81 inches, according to size of machine.
The tunnel, the managers say, will be finished in
five years, for when steam takes the place of the
Deerfield River it is expected that 150 feet of head-
ing will be made per month, which will be 40 feet
above the average of the last eight months, the cost
being $10,000,000. When the Tray and Green-
field Railway is completed, which it is thought will
mainly 18 x 27, and worked through the solid rock
to a depth of nearly 600 feet. A sad accident oc-
curred there some months ago, by which thirteen
workmen lost their lives, and every attempt to
recover their bodies, which lie under 300 feet of
water has as yet failed. The contractors threw up the
undertaking, which the State is now prosecuting.
It is doubted whether the central shaft, if
ever finished, will be of use as a means of venti-
lating the tunnel. Cold air descends, and that at
the bottom is 20 degrees colder than that at the
top of the shaft. Nothing but a huge fire kept con-
stantly burning could make the air ascend, and it
is considered that as in the Mont Cenis Tunnel,
which is 40,000 feet long, without a shaft, the best
means of ventilating will be found the rush of
trains through. 'The West tunnel is 9,747 feet
west from the Central Shaft.

The IVatchnian and Reflector, writing on the an,

nexation of Charlestown to the city of Boston,
says :—" There was a time when Boston was ahead
of New York in population and commercial im-
portance. If Boston had then been endowed with
a territory as large as New York, and if, instead
of being surrounded by small communities under
petty municipalities with toll-bridges fur barriers,
there had been early adopted one comprehensive
system of improvements under the same municipal
government, she would not now have been so far
distanced in the race as to be second even to the
second city of the Empire State. Had the Hoosac
Tunnel beery completed forty years ago, when Col.
Baldwin, of Charlestown, recommended it upon a
careful survey, Boston would have made more rapid
strides."

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

(From the Anglo-American Times)

The cable messages have this week been of un-
usual interest. The Chicago Republican Conven-
tion completed its ticket by naming the Spe;tker of
the house of Reprosentatives, Mr. Schuyler Colfax,
for the Vice-Presidency, a nomination which will
strengthen the Grant ticket. It was pretty well
known that Wade had lost his chance, the delay in
the Impeachment Trial having been fatal to his
prospects. The running lay between Senator
Wilson and Speaker Colfax, the former being
strongly supported by the New England States.
Every day's delay was injurious to Mr. Wade's
interests, as the reaction against the gross proceed-
ings of the politicians and office-seekers to coerce
the Republican Senators who had signified their in-
tention of voting against the Impeachment charges
was hourly increasing. The nomination shows the
intention of the Republican party to throw over its
more violent members, and had Mr. Wade been sel-
ected, we feel sure that the split now threatened
would have been inevitable.

Amongst the resolutions passed by the National
Republican Convention the most important is the
unanimous denunciation of repudiation. This
settles the question as far as that party can settle it.
-The rise in Government bonds is marked, Five-
twenties on Thursday evening almost touching
112. This with the acquittal of the President has
strengthened the Unitel States Securities both at
home and abroad, but as far as the bonds are con-
cerned the declaration of the Convention is of far
the greater importance.
Mr. Seward, impressed, we presume, with what
was the general belief till lately, that there would be
a thorough change in the Government at Washing-
ton, and desirous of leaving no great foreign ques-
tion unsettled, has been busily engaged with the
British Ambassador, Mr. Thornton, and has nearly
completed treaties to settle the Alabama claims
and the rights of naturalized citizens. The latter is
supposed to be based on the terms of the treaty
negotiated between the United States and Prussia.
It was when the last mail left so nearly finished
that the President, it was thought, would be able
this month to submit it to the Senate. The delay
is owing to the British Ambassador, who could not
but regard the Government at Washington as in
the highest degree insecure, and had no fancy to
recommence his work with a Wade Cabinet. The
vote of the lfith, followed by that of the 2Gth on
Impeachment, will settle the question, and enable
Mr. Thornton to act with confidence.
The Pall-Mall Gazette undertakes to explain
what Mr. Bright meant by his somewhat testy
denial of the statement that he is au adherent of
American principles, but we would prefer to have
.that gentleman's own explanation. We certainly
were surprised at the calOatic manner in which
he repudiated what Mr. Lillell said on Thursday
evening in the House of Commons. The Pall-Mall
at the same time undertakes to correct English igno-
rance of American affairs, and instances " the confu-
sion betrayed when the public are informed that the
nomination of Mr. Colfax as Vice-President by the
Chicago Convention is a sign of the declining
power of the Radical party, whereas there is no
Radical in all America more thorough than Mr.
Colfax." But the nomination, notwithstanding the
Pall Mall Gazette, is an indication that the extreme
section of the Republican party did not sway the
Convention, or Wade would hive been the rialu
chosen. Colfax was selected not so much because
he was advanced in his Republican opinions, as be-
cause he combines honesty with intelligence in no
ordinary degree. The /bites is certainly wrong, as
alleged by the Pall Male, in condemning President
Johnson for the re-appointment of Gen. Thomas. If
Stanton resigned, as he had so long threatened,
and from doing which he has been restrained with
difficulty, Lorenzo Thomas would naturally and

without further orders from the President take
possession of the War-office. But we do not know
whether the President may not, on learning the de-
cision of the Senate on the second and third Ar-
ticles have, directed Thomas to take possession, in
which case the Times would not be far out. Can
the Pall Mall tell us what the position would have
been if Stanton had continued " to stick ?"
Duels are iu fashion, as another has come off near
Baltimore, in which both parties were wounded.
The affair was between Colonel P. IL Green, of
Misspuri, and Daniel G. Wright, of Baltimore.
On the 13th May the Arkansas Admission Bill
was called up in the Senate. When debated in the
House Thaddeus Stevens stated that there were hn-
portant reasons which he could not then mention
why the Representatives should at once pass it. Se-
nator Trumbull opposed any departure from the
ordinary practice, which required its reference to
the Judiciary Committee. Senator Johnson took
the same view, and said it would look to the coun-
try, although he did not believe such was the inten-
tion, as if the hasty admission of Arkansas was de-
signed to influence the vote on Impeachment. Se-
nator Dixon contended that nothing should be done
which would admit of such a question being raised.
Senator Edmunds favoured a reference to the Com-
mittee, and added that Republican Senators should
do nothing that would render them liable to sus-
picion. Senators Morton and Harlan declared that
there was no intention of taking such advantage of
the admission of the Arkansas Senators as was sug-
gested, and then the Bill was referred to the Judi-
ciary Committee, and its early consideration pro-
mised. In both Houses it was urged by the De-
mocrats against this Bill that the object was to
bring in the Senators of the Southern States to vote
on Impeachment.
On the 14th May a bill was introduced into the
House of Representatives which has been christened
the Omnibus Reconstruction Bill, containing as it
did so many States, and being as it was, forced
through under the operation of the previous ques-
tion—to admit North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Louisiana, and Alabama to representation
in Congress. These States are to be received after
the ratification of the proposed fourteenth amend-
ment to the Federal Constitution, and upon the
fundamental condition that their people shall never
disfranchise any recognised as citizens by the Con-
stitutions framed by the Convention, nor exact in-
voluntary labour except as a punishment for crime.
The provision was introduced that the debts due to
loyal persons of Georgia, before June, 1865, shall
stand good. The President is instructed to make
official proclamation within ten days after the rati-
fication by the several Southern Legislatures of the
fourteenth amendment. The House refused to

strike Alabama out, though that State had not
complied with the Reconstruction laws, and the
bill as passed goes to the Senate for concurrence.
The Nation discusses the five Governors elect of

the Reconstructed States, of whom four are North-
ern men, W. W. Holden only being a South-
erner, as he was born in North Carolina. Mr.
Bullock, of Georgia, is a Northerner ; Mr. War-
mouth, of Louisiana, was born in Illinois, and

served during the war. He is described as a ready
speaker, who had been an active politician among the
negroes ; Mr. Harrison Reed, of Florida, is also a
Western man, and was one of the Direct-tax Com-
missioners fur that State. General Scott, of South
Carolina, is a Westerner of the Westerners, a clear-,
headed, practical man, in the prime of life, a good
soldier, as sensible in political ideas as he was in the
field, and the Nation will be disappointed if he
does not prove au excellent Governor. At the swine
time it records its repugnance to these elections of
Northern men for high places in the Southern
States. The South ought to furnish her own rulers,

and nothing but trouble can come of the elevation
of that class of the people, some of them the most
odious in the world, who have gone South to push
themselves into offices that at home they could only
sigh for. The vote for Bullock is less than that for
the new Constitution, the latter being ratified by a
majority of 18,000, while the Governor's majority is
about 7,000. The Senators from Georgia will be
Republicans, for the Legislature is no!., as was
reported, Democratic, and four Republicans and
three Democrats go to Congress. Florida's three
Representatives and two Senators will also be Re-
publicans, Virginia being almost the only Southern
State on which the Republicans cannot, at least
for the moment, count. The Nation thinks it foolish
to suppose that universal negro suffrage has for any
very long time added ten States to the R3publican
strength, but it believes that the party has perma-
nently secured two or three.
The Times has come out as ao advocate for a
tunnel between Dover and Calais. The nature of
the soil through which it would penetrate may be
conjectured by that on either side of the Channel.
Three miles west of Calais borings were made, and
white chalk found to a depth of 270 feet, followed
by 480 of grey chalk. On the English coast bor-
ings were made at St. Margaret's Bay, near the
South Foreland, and white chalk was found a depth
of 210 feet below high water, followed by grey
chalk 260 feet deeper. The chalk in both in-
stances, we believe, rests on green sand. This
formation is considered highly favourable, the
only danger being what geologists term a" fault."
The sum required to complete the work is
put at £10,000,000 ; the time, ten years. It is
thought that a preliminary drift-way might be the
pioneer under the sea, at a cost of two millions, by
which any break in the strata would be detected,
atid the remaining eight millions saved ; but if
found practicable the additional expenditure of the
£8,000,000 would complete what the £2,000,000
had commenced. The Emperor Napoleon has been
considering a project to effect the connection, sub-
mitted to him by a French engineer, which we be-
lieve consists of a series of bridges resting on arti-
ficial izlands at certain distances across the Channel.
A third scheme is an iron tube to be laid along the
bed of the sea for the railway. The tunnel plan has
been reported upon by an eminent English engineer,
who seems to consider the work by no means diffi-
cult, chalk being the easiest material to bore
through. Elsewhere we give a sketch of the great
work in the United States, the Iloosac Tunnel.
Lord Stanley has appointed a Commission to
consider the Law of Naturalization, consisting of
the following gentlemen :—Chairman, Lord Claren-,
don ; members, Queen's Advocate, Attorney-Gene-
ral, Sir R. Phillimore, Baron Bramwell, Sir R.
Palmer, M.P., Mr. Cardwell, M.P., Mr. W. E.
Forster, M.P., Mr. Vernon Ilarcoust, and Mr.
Montague Bernard. A writer in the _North Ame-
rican Review considers that a naturalized emigrant
taken in arms against his native country should be
held to have repudiated his new citizenship, if not
in the service of his adopted country. The subject
is discussed in a leader of the Times, which arrives
at the conclusion that the Commission will pro-
bably find it simpler to construct an entirely neiV
code of naturalization and allegiance than to pro-
ceed by the old method of consolidation and
amendment.

Au immense meeting was held at Lewiston,
Maine, Tuesday evening, May 12, to protest against
the acquittal of Andrew Johnson. Speeches were
math by various gentlemen, and resolutions en-
thusiastically adopted expressing the most profound
regret at the probable defection of Republican
Senators, and commendatory of the course adopted
by Senator Morrill, of Maine, whose course was at
one time considered doubtful under the influence of
his colleague, Senator Fessenden, and which led es
in error to couple him with those likely to vote
against Impeachment. D. J. P. Fessenden, a
brother of the Senator, was one of the signers of

the call for the meeting.
Those who think prohibition killed in the United
States are very far wrong. The Radical temper-
ance men of Massachusetts met at Boston, May

13, and took up the advanced position, by which
they either force the Republican party to adopt
their the)ry and give effect to their wishes, or
desert it, establishing a party of their own for the
campaign next fall. There were 1,300 delegates re-
presenting 20G cities and to Judge and Sen ttor
Pitman, of New Bedford, was chosen permanent
chait man. Lloyd Garrison made an excellent
speech, one evidently prepared with care, which
was refreshing when contrasted with the deluge of
small talk poured over the meeting by every parson
who uudertpok to speak morality, and their nam°
was legion. A long string of resolutions were
adopted, two committees formed, and of course the
hat was sent mind to collect money, $3,000 to
$lO,OOO being wanted for political purposes.
The Italian brigand chief Manzi has received ag
ransom from his captives no less a sum than 435,000 f..
(£18,200 sterling.)

The Naples and Florence Observer says :-•••••'‘ Grave
suspicions are afloat touching the death of Count Crivell►,
the late Austrian Ambassador to the Court of Rome ; in"
deed it is believed that not only he but Baron do Bost
have been poisoned. From what we are able to learn it
appears a conspiracy had been organized by the priest-
hood to put these gentlemen out of the way, clerical venge-
ance having been sworn against thorn for the prominent
part they had taken in the laceration of the Concor-
dat. Can it be possible that Cardinal d'Andrea is yet an"
other victim to clerical fury, arid that on the eve of de-
parture from Rome the p,oisonar has been busy with hi°l
also ?

Mr. Frederick M. B. Bertram has written to cor-
rect the idea prevailing in England that Mr. Norton is
the inventor of the tube pumps found so useful by tll6
Field Force in Abyssinia. He says "that Mr. Norton i 8
only the purchaser of the invention for Great Britain, and
that the inventors to whom the merit is really due sr°
Messrs. Hiram John Messenger, Stephen Brewer, an
a
Byron Mudge, all of Cortland, in the State of New York'
United States America."
Two hundred and fifty Swiss emigrants arrived
in Boston on Monday, May 11, on their way to the West'
Professor Agassiz stated at a hearing before the
Legislative Committee on Education that he once received
a wild bull of Lithuania, now so rare that the last of its roc'
are preserved by a law making their destruction a eaPit9',
crime in exchange for twelve bull-frogs. "Many a "'et;
chant ship sailing from the port of Boston," said he, "11,8;
carried my alcohol cans all over the world, and brought
me back without cost the rarest specimens. I have friends
among the fishermen, too, who for years have worked f°'
the museum, never charging a cent for their labour, barely
repaying themselves for the cash paid out."
John H. Surratt was brought up on the 12th
May, but the trial was postponed till the next term of the
court, on the motion of his counsel, who made a strenaol
attempt to get bail. Although long confinement in IP°d
has injured Surratt's health, Chief Justice Cartter refuge
to grant it, an 1 ho therefore remains in prison.
A tablet, in honour of the late Thomas D'Arls
M'Gee, has been placed opposite the spot where ho v(%
killed. The inscription runs as follows Here fell, °,,
the 7th April, 1868, by the assassin's hand, the 13-‘)".
Thomas D'Arcy M'Gee."

Births.
BRISTOWE On the 30th ult.; at DenroArk-hill, the wife° Of
Thomas L. Bristowe, Esq., of a son. 10°
DLTRRAM—On the 29th ult. ' at 6, Cromwell Houses,
Countess of Durham, of a daughter.
KILBURN—On the 3th ult., at Camborne House,
Bichnionthe wife of Edward D. Kilburn, Esq., of a daughter.

Marriages.
h
„ r s
PHILLIPPS—ViviAN—On tho 30th ult , at Putney
Church, Henry M. Phillipps, Esq., of Beckenharp,too
Louise Vivian, niece of Win. Vivia, Esq
L Boehanl
odge, Barnes, Surrey.
rot
PERRY —DREVA R —On the 28th ult., at „
Church, Kent, Thomas Perry, Esq., of Belmont, .
0, Tro.
County, to Harriett St. Lawrence, third daughter
Trevar, Eq., of Ilighbury.

Deaths. ~.it
COPE—On the 28th tilt., Wm. Cope, Es lute of Eltus"l
Hall, Not, ad 57. °Pe'
S'l"
FRENCH —Otsn thege 29th nit , at Ifit •er House, EP', 50ff°11‘'
Thomas French, Esq., aged ~'3. gi'6
FENN—On the 28th ult , at 2 Eldon-squaro, lleadiug, -
Elizabeth Fenn, aged. 75. ' rev',
rAItRATT—On the 23th ult , at Effingham Ifouse, Sur .
Lieut.-Col. If. M. Parma., J.l'., and Deputy-Lieuten3
of the county, aged 78. Lesirir
RABBETH—On the 28th tilt. at at 2, Sandwell-place,
hatn-road, Mr. John Itab.beth, aged i 9.
u ~ a. a , camp , OOO
SAUNDERS —0 u the 28th It t-, '0 B or t-stree
It. Saunders, E.,q., formerly Captain in the Fri'ca
sort's Own Rifle Lrigade, aged 32.

Lond)n : Printed and Published by WiLLIA.3.I .A.ND,;12.,
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Tail SUN CO ol
Strand, in the Precinct of the Slim in the 13'
bliddlesex.—Monday, June 1, 1868.