American citizen., 1875-03-27

and the other in France. each to carry
on from its own side a series of surveys
| and explorations preliminary to the
main undertaking, and each company is
| to work on its own capital of 100000
| francs, or over eSO,00 sterling. The
| French company is the Societe des
| Etudes, administered by a committee of
which NJ. Chevaier is Chairman. Already
Messrs. Rothschild have subscribed one
quarter of the capital on the French
side, and the French Northern Rail-
way Company one half of the same.
On the English side Sir John Hawk
shaw is the eneineer-in-chief, and the
Southeastern Il London and the
Chatham & Dover Railroad Companies
are largely interested in the enterprise,
as they well may be, while Mr.. Brunton,
the well-known engineer, has invented
new borer which will do even better
than that used in the Mont Gents Tunnel
On the French side, M. Lesseps, con-
structor of the Suez Canal, is ardently
engaged in the course of the Strait Tun-
mel and has recommended it in an ad-
dress delivered before the Academy of
Science. Indeed, the Frenchmen are
more e1dstees on this matter than the En-
glish, believing they would be the great
est gamers by the achievement The
two preliminary companies will now pro-
ceed to survey the road they mean to
travel. They already know, of course,
the sounding of the strait between the
Bay of ST. Margaret, near Dover, and
Sangatte, near Calais, distance of about
thirty-two miles. These soundings vary
from about eighty to $50 feet. But the
nature of the formation under the chan
mel at IA depth of 200 or 800 feet is not
known; and this must be ascertained. If
the hard-pan of the bottom is chalk,
like the formation of the land on the
sides, the projectors will have solid en-
couragement to proceed. If, on the con-
trary, the bed of the strait should be of
sand and alluvial earth to "A depth of 300
feet and more, they would scarcely at
tempt to make a tunnel over thirty miles
long through such "a dangerous medium.
This is the uncertainty; and to solve
the matter will be the first duty of the
companies. To that end each will sink
its own shaft on its own shore to depth
of 300 or 400 feet, sufficient to show
whether or not the land stratum of chalk
extends downward on each side beneath
the channel of the strait. Should it be
found to do so on both sides it would
naturally be concluded that the chalk is
in the middle also, to furnish solid roof
for the excavation, and not such a sandy
roof as broke so disastrously into the
works of the Thames Tunnel. For this
experiment the companies are sinking
their respective shafts and galleries dessdt,
or trial galleries. 1t is estimated that the
cost of the tunnel would he 100, 900, 600
francs, or about e5,000,000 sterling, and
that the work could be completed in
three years. The French are highly in
terested in the project, since they lie in
the track of a great railway such as Will
yet connect England with the Euphrates
and Hindostan. The English are eau
tiously inquiring about the ventilation of
such a tunnel. But it is considered that
the Hawkshaws, Brasseys, Lesseps and
other men of science who advocate the
scheme would not do SO if a sufficient
current of air could not be maintained
III the passage. At any rate this subject
will be Investigated by the two prelimi-
nary companies.
A talk about tunnels (in esse or p0sse)
cannot we'll conclude without some allu-
sion to another which would enable New
Jersey to "cast out her shoe, Scriptural-
ly speaking, over the prOtltabIe Island of
Manhattan, and be an achievement to
throw into the shade its diminutive pre-
cursor of the Thames. The company
proposing to construct this passage,
about mile long, from Fifteenth
street in Jersey City to Christopher
street in New York, has got its sanction
under a general railway law of the sister
State, and its prospectus and plan have
been made known to the public. Mean
time, as an injunction has stopped the
work in limiae, there is as yet no real
progress to report. But the Hudson
Tunnel will be IL great fact some day,
and that no very distant one in n few
years New York will have its rival Won
ders of engineering skill to exhibit-her
gigantic bridge of the East River above
and her tunnel of the Hudson below
two art achievements which will be
in keeping with the natural
grandeur of our harbor and give the city
IA metropolitan dignity worthy of its
wealth and inevitable expansion.-N. Y.
Times