618 



THE GREAT ALPINE TUNNELS. 



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 besieg- 

 ing 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, desirable 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, a and it i.s satisfactory to know 

 that although very considerable doubts were expressed 

 as to the accuracy of his statements, recent investi- 

 gations 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 1,416 yards. It is, moreover, 

 8 feet high and as man} r wide. By the side of this 

 there is also an artificial canal, which in like maimer 

 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 Hero- 

 dotus must have made a mistake, but the Rev. H. F. 

 Tozer, in his book The Islands of the ^Egean, 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, the resident engineer evidently 

 made a mistake in his levels, necessitating a much deeper excavation 

 than was at first anticipated. 



Another and, if possible, a more interesting instance of tunneling 

 is that described in the Proceedings of the Palestine Exploration 

 Society, in connection with the Pool of Siloam, made by Hezekiah, 

 B. C. 710, 2 Kings, xx, 20. b (See fig. 2.) 



About 710 B. C. a tunnel was driven from the spring to the well — 

 by actual tunneling — the work being commenced at the two ends, and 

 by shafts, and the workmen met in the middle. The tunnel was only 



Flu. 1. — Cross section 

 of the Aqueduct of 

 Eupulinos, in the 

 Island of Samos. 



a Herodotus, III, p. 60. 



b Palestine Exploration, 1882, p. 178. 



