Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-09-19
TUNNEL FROM ENGLAND TO
ER ANNE


An ingenious French gentleman has
been making surveys and estimates for a
tunnel under the English Channel from
Dover to Calsis-a sort Of practical an
nexation which he thinks could be carried
through for about thirty-6ve millions Of
dollars. As we were ourselves in the
habi, Of spending that in less than q week
in war time. i, is supposed that W such
great nations as England and France could
easily spare the funds. Engineers esti-
mates are, however, not always to be
trusted, and Mr.. Brunei, who constructed
| the tunnel under the Thames, after sink
ING about a million of dollars, found it
cost a full million and a half more before
1t was pushed through. A tormer tunnel
had been ~excavated under the Thames at
Gravesend. but was abandoned when
nearly a, the other shore. on sccount Of
the breaking in of the waters. Neither
tunnel proved profitable to the owners,
and the former has been sold to some rail-
road, because so little used as q public en-
,erprise. To tunnel the English Channel,
however, would be a very different sort Of
thing, involving some twenty-five miles Of
underground work-twenty Of It under
the sea. N. Gamond, the proposer OF this
enterprise, has made no fewer than six
distinct surveys Of as many different
routes, with geological charts and detailed
drawings. He proposes to raise a tower
2S4 fee, high in the middle Of the sea,
with a shat, $50 feet in diameter, and sur
rounded by an artificial island. This
would still leave some twelve or thirteen
miles to be supplied with fresh air on
each side Of it. Twenty-nine feet three
inches is the proposed radius Of his arc,
with a hight of twenty-five feet mint
inches high-not far from the size Of the
Thames tunnel with drainage under
meath, a foot-path for pedestrians and two
lines of railway. He would hope to com
plete this in six years, island and all-this
last alone requiring some 5000, 900 cubic
metres of earth to be deported midway OIL
the channel.
Whether this plan Of NJ. Gamond will
ever be carried out is very doubtful-that
i, is practicable is equally doubtful. We
are a, this momen experimenting upon 9
comparatively small tunnel, carried out
two miles into the lake at Chicago, and
although the soil is Of a tenacious clay
that cuts like cheese, and is in every re.
spect most favorable, 1t has already cost
about double the first estimate. both Of
time and money. When this is completed,
the contractors will probably know more
about the actual difficulties Of such an
undertakings and its expense than any eel
of men in the world. The chalk cliffs o.
Dover would, however, be less favorable
for boring than the clay under the lake q
Chicago.
What is most remarkable about thii
plan is, that it would probably restor,
England to that relation to France which
i. occupied ages ago. Sir Charles Lyel
thinks, indeed, that since the great glacia
period, and since men existed on the earth
England was a peninsula and not ar
island, the whole Of the Channel being
subsequent submergence, which has taker
place by slow degrees. Whether i, woulc
create any such travelling invasion o
France and England, or England intc
France. as has been conjectured, we d.
no, know. bu, in case Of war il a Napo
leon could once get possession Of boil
ends, julius Cesar would be outdonI
completely.