1900.] 



on the Great Alpine Tunnels. 



423 



cut open to daylight, the arch being built, the ground restored, and 

 the river allowed to resume its former course. The tunnel is said to 

 have been 15 feet in width, and 12 feet in height, built of brick. 



Herodotus gives an account of the diversion of the river into a 

 great excavation or artificial lake 40 miles square, and states that the 

 besieging enemy, so soon as the water was drawn off, entered into the 

 city by the river bed. It is believed that this same excavation was 

 made use of for the construction of the tunnel. It is, however, de- 

 sirable to state that doubts have been thrown on the subject, and it 

 is possible that it may have to be relegated to mythology. 



The next instance of a tunnel is that referred to by Herodotus in 

 the Island of Samos,* and it is satisfactory to know that although 

 very considerable doubts were expressed as to the accuracy of his 

 statements, recent investigations prove that he was exactly correct. 

 The description given by him, when expressed in English words and 

 figures, is as follows : " They have a mountain which 

 is 910 feet in height ; entirely through this they 

 have made a passage, the length of which is 1416 

 yards. It is, moreover, 8 feet high, and as many 

 wide. By the side of this there is also an artificial 

 canal, which in like manner goes quite through the 

 mountain ; and though only 3 feet in breadth, is 

 30 feet deep. This, by the means of pipes, conveys 

 to the city the waters of a copious spring." 



The commentators on this passage say that 

 Herodotus must have made a mistake, but the 

 Eev. H. F. Tozer, in his book ' The Islands of the 

 iEgean,' page 167, gives the results of a personal 

 visit. 



He says the tunnel is 7 to 8 feet in width ; that 

 two-thirds of its width is occupied by a footpath, 

 the other third being a water-course, 30 feet deep 

 at one end. He and other writers consider that 

 insufficient allowance was made for the fall of 

 the water, and that the water channel had to be 

 deepened. To describe it in more modern language, Fig. 1. — Cross 

 the resident engineer evidently made a mistake in Section of the 

 his levels, necessitating a much deeper excavation 

 than was at first anticipated. 



Another, and, if possible a more interesting, 

 instance of tunnelling is that described in the ' Pro- 

 ceedings of the Palestine Exploration Society,' in connection with 

 the Pool of Siloam, made by Hezekiah, B.C. 710, 2 Kings, xx. 20.| 

 (See Fig. 2.) 



About 710 b.c. a tunnel was driven from the spring to the well — 



Aqueduct of 

 Eupalinos, in 

 the Island of 

 Samos. 



Herodotus, iii. p. 60. t 'Palestine Exploration,' 1882, p. 178. 



