( 180 ) [April, 



II. THE PROJECTED MEESEY TUNNEL AND 

 RAILWAY. 



(From Liverpool to Birkenhead.) 

 By Sir Charles Fox. 



As a means of intercommunication between Liverpool and Birken- 

 head, a tunnel beneath the Mersey has been under consideration by 

 leading men on both sides of the river for upwards of thirty-eight 

 years ; and when the inconvenience and loss both of time and money 

 which the want of such a means of transit has ever occasioned are 

 considered, it is, in these days of increased facihties, a matter of 

 surprise that, while works of real difl&culty have been carried to 

 completion on every side, this obvious want should not have been 

 satisfied. 



There is but one opinion as to the importance of intercom- 

 munication between Liverpool and Birkenhead, and it being 

 admitted that the great obstacle in the way of its realization is 

 the doubt existing in the pubHc mind as to the cost at which it can 

 be attained, it has been felt that this doubt can never be overcome 

 unless the nature of the river-bed is conclusively proved. 



When this has been done, I am sure that the construction of a 

 tunnel through the red sandstone rock under the Mersey will be 

 found an easy and inexpensive operation, as, judging fi'om the 

 many similar works which have been executed in this rock during 

 the last forty years (those most analogous having been tunnels of 

 various dimensions carried on at considerable depth below the level 

 of the bottom of the river, with a view of obtaining a more copious 

 supply of water for the town of Liverpool), it has been ascertained 

 that in no material can such works be effected at so small a cost as 

 through the very strata now well known to exist in this locahty, 

 the amorphous nature of the rock rendering it peculiarly advan- 

 tageous for tunnelling operations. 



Tunnels have been made at a low price through chalk, as that 

 material is readily excavated ; but from its general looseness and 

 its consequent tendency to fall, it is deemed necessary, for the 

 purpose of ensuring safety, to put in brick or stone hning, and 

 this, as compared with red sandstone, which generally requhes 

 no such lining, considerably augments the cost ; and it must not 

 be forgotten that the sandstone, when excavated irom a tunnel in 

 or near a town, is saleable for use as building material; while 

 chalk, taken from a tunnel, being of no value, is more generally 

 run to spoil. 



It would appear that one of the most formidable hindrances in 

 the way of getting capitalists to embark their money in making 

 tunnels under rivers, of which very many arc urgently needed, 



