Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1882-03-16
HE CHANNEL TUNNEL,
Progress of the Work on the French
Coast.

Progress of the Work on the French |
London Times
On the French coast the company
which obtained a concession from the
French government in 1875 to con-
struct the southern half of the pro-
posed channel tunnel have made con-
siderable and, so Far, satisfactory prog
ress in the examination of the chalk
cliffs near Calais, which are believed to
be the Oulcrop of continuous bed of
homogeneous chalk running beneath
the sea between the two shores .and 10y
invitation of the Paris committee the
engineers and officials Of the English
Channel Tunnel company and some
others yesterday visited the works.
The hOrinGs are near the little village
of Sangatte, which, according to Muir
ray, is abOut six miles from Calais.
The buildings are not merely temporary
sheds, such US might suffice to protect
the workers during the prosecution of
experimental bOrings, bat substantial
erections of brick, with concrete floors,
Il high, brick chimney shaft, and tram
ways running a distance of perhaps
one hundred yards to the edge of the
cliff, over which the excavated chalk is
thrown, the cliffs at this point rising
prccipilously from the beach to
height of over one hundred feet. lii
one large building is the machinery,
designed by VI. ColladOn, for driving
with compressed air the boring MT
chimes. This will be superintendent by
". Welkpr, the engineer who was in
charge of the air-compressing machine
ry used in the st. GOthard tunnel, Two
shafts have heem sunk at distance Of
~ or 80 yards apart, and by the larger
OF these the visitors decended to TX.
anime horizontal cutting. About 10
feet below the surface the bOrers have
found the cyGie de Rouen, strata cor
responding to the lower portion of that
homogeneous gray chalk which some
Of our biologists have called the chalk
without nins. AT a depth of Is feet
the brick lining Of the pit ceases and the
employment Of wooden clubbing" be.
gius, this being carried dOwntO depth
of ,.Ol feet, when the chalk becomes
50 dry and hard that lining is no
longer required. The depth of the
shaft is about 2SO feet, and going
about 6 feet lover down by Il ladder
through hole at one side a gallery s
feet high and Of the same width is en-
tered. This opens into one Of equal
diameter running nearly at right an
giles, which, with a slightly upward III
clinatOn, to provide for drainage, runs
in northeasterly direction, but trend
ing to the northward-that is, toward
the sea-with a curve having radius
of one kilometer. 1t is to be 1850
yards long Artificial ventilation has
not been found necessary so far, the
two shafts, wi n both of which it is in
connection, providing fox an up and
down current of air. This gallery is
about 40 feet below low water mark,
!, but no portions Of these workings have
yet been pushed out under the sea.
N. Alexandra I.avalley. the contractor
for the Sue2 canal, who has offered to
l undertake the construction OF the tun-
, mel for the French conceSsi0ndireS, is to
! drive another gallery OF equal length
= in the same direction as, but not i'm
medately over, the one already begun.
!. He will employ Brunton's cutting.ma-