488 The Channel Tunnel. [October, 
considered by Verstigan, so long since as 1673, in a pamphlet 
dedicated to King James. He compared the identity of the 
strata, the composition of the cliffs, the similarity of their 
lengths, and arrived at the opinion that the surface had been 
gradually worn away by the action of the sea, and not by 
disruption. In the following century M. Desmarest wrote 
an essay on the same subject, arriving at the same conclu- 
sion; and in 1818 the question was philosophically treated 
by Richard Phillips, F.R.S., in an elaborate essay which he 
read before the Geological Society. 
Although, however, there appears to be little doubt that 
the Straits of Dover have thus been formed by the con- 
tinued action of natural causes, it by no means follows that 
at no previous period had the even lay of the strata between 
England and France been disturbed by volcanic or other 
violent terrestrial forces. Between Folkestone and Cape 
Gris-Nez there is the Varne in mid-channel of a formation 
belonging to the Portland beds, which are of a much older 
series than the deposits to be found on either coast, and this 
of itself should prepare geologists to anticipate some irre- 
gular trend in the direétion of the strata between the two 
shores. It may be that the irregularity is not of sufficient 
extent at the proposed line of passage materially to affect 
the projected work, but where an evident upheaval of the 
lower strata is known to occur within so short a distance of 
the selected site, it seems but reasonable to suppose that the 
effects of the disturbance by which it was caused may have 
influenced the geological formations within a few miles at 
least on either side of the fault. We shall, however, refer 
more particularly to this subject when treating of the geo- 
logical examinations of the Channel bed. 
It is not proposed in this article to enter into any detail 
regarding all the alternative schemes from time to time pro- 
jected with the view of spanning more conveniently the nar- 
row channel that now separates us from our neighbours, but 
it may render the present examination of the subject more 
interesting to refer briefly to the various devices proposed for 
obviating or lessening the inconveniences felt by those who 
suffer in crossing between England and France from the 
too common complaint of mal de mer. 
From M. Thomé de Gamond’s publication on this subject 
we learn that the establishment of some means of direct 
communication between England and France was first pro- 
posed at the latter end of the last century. The earliest 
project of which there is any account on record for crossing 
the Channel by a tunnel was proposed by M. Mathieu, a 
