INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 187G. ccxxvii 



upon the project as follows : " With a ship-canal across the south- 

 ern end of France, vessels could leave Liverpool, or any other En- 

 glish port, pass readily and quickly into the Mediterranean, and 

 from that sea by the Suez Canal into the Arabian Sea, and thus reach 

 our possessions in India." 



Another project meriting notice is that of Mr. Henry C. Spaulding, 

 an American engineer, who proposes to restore the ancient water- 

 level of the Caspian Sea. He would commence the work at some 

 point in the Caspian basin, where the surface is fifty feet below the 

 Black Sea, and extend a level channel 500 feet in width westward, 

 until 35 feet fall is obtained ; from that point he proposes to con- 

 tinue the channel with a width of 150 feet, and a depth of 15 feet 

 below the Black Sea, shoaling to 10 feet at its shore. The pro- 

 jector estimates that water will flow through this channel at the 

 rate of eight miles per hour, and that with proper direction it will 

 excavate a channel of the full size of the larger section (which shall 

 be navigable) and fill the entire Caspian basin in about forty years. 

 By diverting the Don into the Volga River, which could be accom- 

 plished, the projector estimates that the time of filling would be re- 

 duced to twenty-five years. 



A pamphlet called the "Inter-Continental Tunnel " has lately been 

 published in Madrid, advocating the scheme of tunneling the Strait 

 of Gibraltar between Tarifa and Algesiras, on the Spanish coast, 

 and Ceuta and Tangiers, on the African side. The more important 

 points of this scheme arc chronicled in our last year's Record. The 

 project of tunneling the Simplon Pass is again being mooted, a com- 

 pany for this purpose having been organized at Lausanne. The route 

 of the projected work would be, it is said, from Brigue to Pelle, and 

 its length 11.4 miles. A similar project, named in last year's Becor'd, 

 was abandoned in consequence of an unfavorable report from a com- 

 mission of French engineers, who were appointed to investigate its 

 merits. 



A new ship-canal, which has long been projected for the benefit 

 of the port of Amsterdam, was completed and thrown open to gen- 

 eral commerce on the 21st of November, 1876. We condense the 

 following facts relating to this work from the London Times: "The 

 old route from Amsterdam to the ocean was by the Zuyder Zee, but 

 the storms and banks of this dangerous gulf led, in 1819, to the 

 construction of the North Holland Canal from Amsterdam to the 

 Helder, the northernmost point of the province of North Holland, 

 over fifty miles from Amsterdam. Why this route Avas chosen in- 

 stead of the short cut now made is hard to understand. But pro- 

 vincial interests prevailed over the claims of mercantile capital, and 

 it was reserved for our own days to bring Amsterdam, by a cut of 

 fifteen miles, within an hour or two, at ordinary tides, of the Ger- 

 man Ocean." Tlie cost of this improvement is stated to have been 



