Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-12-30
The Franco.EnrII.h TunneI.

The project of a tunnel underneath the
English Channel for the purpose of relieving
the sufferings of the many thousands annual
ly obliged to cross the famous or infamous
''silver streak" was long decried as visionary;
but at last it has taken tangible shape There
is henceforth comparatively small doubt that
it will be success. NJ. Leon Say, late
French Minister of Finance, and one Of the
boldest and most aggressive European com
mercial spirits of the age, has given the en-
terprise the advantage of his confidence from
the outset. The English began by laughing
at the tunnel they next sounded the note Of
alarm claiming that the day might come
when, because of the tunnel the invasion Of
England, always heretofore, at least since the
time of the Norman conqueror supposed TO
be impossible, might become a possibility.
When this was whistled down the wind as a
ridiculous and unmanly fear next came the
notion that, at the close Of the preliminary
experiments, the people who had put up
their money would find that it was for their
interest to go no farther. All this has finally
been set aside, and both the French and
English nations are making mp their minds
that in few years trains will run directly
from Charing Cross in London to the Care
du Nord in Paris without change, and in
about six, or at most seven, hours.
On the English side, where mining beneath
the sea is very well understood (as the Cor
nish mines so wonderfully worked by the
hardy miners amply testify, the labor is pro-
| crossing with much rapidty. Shafts have
| been sunk near Dover and from the bottom
of one of them q transversal gallery has been
carried about eight hundred yards under the
channel bed. There is no danger in this
work, but it is still rather difficult to get
| workmen for 1t. The surveys for the tunnel
are made with view TO piercing the new in
ternational highway through a layer of "gray
| Rouen chalk" Above this information is a
clay bed which seems providentiRlly placed
| there to prevent the infiltration SO much
feared. These were, indeed, the only things
which were supposed to constitute possible
peril, and the capitalists interested have
frightened up very much since they have
heard of this clay bed. The Dover gallery is
seven feet in diameter; it has been pierced
thus far by an automatic machine. No pow
der or dynamite is employed. On the Calais
side, at Sangate, gallery has been started,
and the workmen will work from both sides,
expecting to meet midway in the tunnel, ex-
actly as the Italian and Swiss gangs met un-
der the St Gothard pass. The day that the
pick and the drill are used for the last time
in this great work will be joyous one for
those who dread sea-sickness But it will
not increase the number of English and
French travellers very much for many years
to come. 1t is expense which prevents the
masses of the English from going abroad,
and the French show the same curious indis-
position that they have always manifested to
see for themselves how their neighbors look
at home
The tunnel will be twenty English miles
long It is estimated that in Ave years the
galleries can be finished, and that five years
more will be required for the enlarging, lay
ing down of the ventilating apparatus, the
railways, etc.