The Hickman courier., 1877-08-10
4 WOyDERFUL WORK.

The Tunnel Bet'ree" Engla,.1 and Fya,,ce.
It is now three quarters 4 a century
since the project was broachd of driving
a tunnel through the chak formation
underlying the British chanel between
some point on the English cast and the
/ opposite point on the coas Of France.
/ Although the distance bet7een Dover
and Calais is only twenty-tw, miles, and
is traversed by steamers in anhour and
half in fair weather, vet the roughue-s
of the channel Is at all times such as to
BE very distressing to all but experienced
travellers, and deters many persons from
making the trip at all Since the intro
ducti5n of railways fort. years ago the
tunnel project which IT. Mathieu,
French engineer, laid beore Bonaparte
in 1902 has acquired yea by year addi-
tional Importance. Ab0lt ten years
ago the subject was revived with much
earne7tness, and after the experimental
tests were found to b> satisfactory the
governments of England and France
granted the right of way to a channel
company which was incorporated in 1S72
This company has since dectaed 70 place
the route Of the tunnel 'on a line drawn
from the south foreland on the English
side to point between Sangatte and
Calais, in France"
The tunnel, should be constructed,
viii commence and end at some distance
inland, to allow for a gradual descent on
one side and ascent on the other The
inland parts Of the tunnel viii be nine
miles in length, counting the distance
underground at both ends. The length
of the tunnel under the channel viii be
twenty-five miles, making the total
length thirty-two miles The cost Of
simply driving the tunnel from end TO
end through the underlying chalk for
nation Is estimated at four millions Of
dollars, and the time it would require to
construct the driftway two years. The
engineers calculated it would take four
more years to finish the work, including
the aIching of the tuunel, building the
offices, and making the necessary connec-
tions with the railway on both sides. |
The total cost Is put at twenty millions
of dollars. 4 short time ago a meeting
of the Tunnel company was held in |
Paris, at which were read the reports of
the engineers engaged during the past |
year in making the preliminary subma- |
rine surveys. These surveys were pro-
nounced quite satisfactory, continuous /
bed of chalk having been traced unlying |
the channel from shore to shore As a /
further experimental test Of the practi-
cability of the scheme the sum OF one
hundred and sixty thousand pounds
sterling has been provided principally |
by the railway companies interested in
of the work. to sink pits on /
both sides into the chalk beds and drive
a section OF the tunnel hslf mile under
the waters of the channel.
Thus far everything works favorably
to the ultimate completion of this great
project Whether the neces.
sary amount of capital csn be obtained is
the chief problem now to be solved. An
attempt has been made to show that suf-
ficient revenue could be derived from
passengers to pay fair interest on the
capital invested, in addition to the cur
rent expenses OF lighting, ventillating
and operating this long line of read under
the bed of the sea. The number of per-
sons crossing the channel annually be-
tween Dover and Calais is believed to be
about 400, 1000. The theory is that this
number would be doubled if the tunnel
were built. and the sickness incidental to
the sea voyage thus avoided. But it is
not shown that tunnel thirty-one miles
in length would itself be free from equally
serious objections. The project, never
theless, is a grand one, and if capitalists
could be induced to believe that the tun
mel can be made to pay, there is abun-
dance of money wherewith to build it now