Morning journal and courier., 1880-03-17
The St. s4Othard Tunnel.
Rejoicing Rt Fts COmpIetiOn-DifKi-
 cuiLy and Danger OS aho Work.

cuiLy and Danger OE tho Work.
 The Swiss correspondent of the London
 Times writes as follows "The working par
 ties in the two sections of the St. Gothard
 tunnel had this morning at 11:15, completed
 !, 160 metres from the south entrance. The
 calculations of the engineers as to the drec-
 ton of the galleries thus fully verified but
 they were cut by 80 metres in their estimate
 of the length to be pierced. At noon yester
 day it was computed that there were still
 very considerable number of metres to bore,
 and that the meeting from both ends would
 occur 40 hours later, but in the course of last
 night, on sounding with long drill, it was
 found the thickness of the intervening rock
 was only 13 metres. The news of this unlock
 ed for consummation became speedily known,
 and at 10 o'clock large crowds had assembled
 to wait for the suspicious blast which should make of the two galleries one tunnel At Afro To a few members of the local Laudwehr with their band, were hastily summoned, flags hoisted, and engines and wagons gayly deco rated, and when the train bringing the people from Goschenen ran into the station, the tun-
 nel being practicable for locomotives two thirds of the way, nothing was wanting to
 complete the satisfaction of the engineers and
 others connected with the undertaking but the
 presence of M Favre, the contractor, who
 died six months ago in the very tunnel which
 he had so nearly brought to successful con-
 clusion and with which his name will ever be
 associated.
 The piercing of the longest tunnel in the
 world has thus been achieved in seven years
 and five months-a rapidity of execution
 quite unprecedented, for relatively to it's
 length the St. Gothard has been bored in
 fourth of the time occupied in the boring of
 the Hauenstein tunnel, and in less than half
 the time taken by the Mont Cenis. This
 great advance in the art of tunnel-driving is
 due to the more extended application of ma
 ohinery, and above all to the efficiency of the o;, Sv,- ,kadh ky pr,f IoTI don, of Geneva. The perforators, actuated by
 these compressors, do their work with mar velous swiftness. In two hours one machine drills 26 holes 1.30 metres deep in 8 face of rock some two metres square. The holes are then filled with dynamite, charged, and fired, every explosion dislodging some 2k cubic metres of rock. The point of attack for the perforators is always the upper part of the finished tunnel of the future the floor of the
 passage they clean out being afterward blast ed and wrought down by hand to the required level. The locomotives used in the tunnel ara moved by compressed air, and ventilation is provided from the same source. Horses are also used for dragging the wagons, but | owing to the intense heat and the closeness, the mortality among them is very great. Out of stud of 40, 10 die on an average every month. The men work night and day in shifts of eight hours each the labor is very trying and they are compelled to take fre- quent holidays. Great circumspection has had to be exercised in the admission of out siders to the galleries, as a walk of several miles in the stihing heat and vitiated atmos- phere might easily prove fatal to persons with weak hearts or tendency to congestion of
 the brain, and even the healthy who venture in for the first time have often occasion to regret
 their temerity. The scene in the interior of the tunnel is weird in the extreme; the pitchy darkness, relieved only by the glare of few lamps, the shrieking of locomotives the blow ing of horns, the tramping of horses, the vii bration of the perforators, the explosion of
 mines, the continual passing of heavily laden wagons, the groups of naked men plying the pick-axe, spade and shovel-all these things mingled together create an impression never to be forgotten. The completion of the work, now that the two galleries are joined and a free circulation of air is established, will be comparatively easy. The tunnel is expected to be ready for traffic by the end of September
 in the summer of 1882. The great engineer ing triumph of which the St. Gothard tunnel
 is at once the monument and the consumma-
 ton, though peaceful, has not been blood
 less one. Between 60 and 70 men have been
 killed by the premature explosion of mines and other mishaps; many more have been seriously injured.