580 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



ST. GOTHARD TUNNEL. 



Work has been uninterruptedly pushed forward during 

 the past year. The contract of M. Favre, its constructor, re- 

 quires the tunnel to be completed by October, 1880, under 

 heavy pecuniary penalties for every day its completion is de- 

 layed beyond the appointed period. The tunnel has proved 

 to be more difficult than was at first supposed ; and, owing 

 to the mistakes of engineers, the work will cost not less 

 than $55,000,000, or twenty millions more than the original 

 estimates. 



A DEEP SEA HARBOR FOR THE FORT OF BOULOGNE 



is said to have been decided upon by the French govern- 

 ment, and an appropriation of $3,500,000 has been made for 

 it. The plans said to have been approved are those of 

 M. Stoecklin, and involve a solid stone jetty on the south- 

 west 2235 yards long, a wooden jetty on the northeast 15*70 

 yards long, and a solid stone breakwater on the outer or 

 western boundary 545 yards long. Between the breakwater 

 and the jetty will be two entrances, respectively 272 and 163 

 yards wide; and in the middle of the harbor a stone jetty 

 will be provided 436 yards long and 218 yards wide, where 

 steamers may embark and land passengers at all stages of 

 the tide. The new port will have a mean depth of twenty-one 



feet. 



THE CHANNEL-TUNNEL PROJECT, 



so far as the Ei>glish are concerned, remained in statu quo 

 during the past year. On the French side, however, the ex- 

 perimental borings were continued, and are said to have been 

 confirmatory of the geological theories upon which the feasi- 

 bility of the undertaking is based. Incidentally it may be 

 noted that during the year a project has been broached for 

 tunnelling the Channel from the English coast to the Isle of 

 Wight, the increase of traffic between the last-named and the 

 mainland having rendered such a means of safe and rapid 

 communication very desirable. 



The project of Hooding the Sahara still continues to have 

 in Mr. Donald Mackenzie an indefatigable and enthusiastic 

 advocate, but no practical progress towards its realization is 

 to be recorded. 



