1875.] ; The Channel Tunnel. 495 
Channel; but that the main features of an improved harbour 
at Dover and a new harbour south of Cape Gris-Nez were 
sound, if means could be found for meeting so great an ex- 
pense as the works would entail. Captain Tyler then pro- 
ceeded to consider the practicability of improving the existing 
harbours so as to fit them for a service of larger vessels, 
after which he directed attention to the bolder schemes 
which had been put forward from time to time for avoiding 
the use of steam vessels altogether by the construction of 
bridges, or tunnels, or tubes over, under, or in the bed of the 
Channel, with or without islands, piers, or air-shafts, so as 
to connect the railway system of England directly with that 
of the Continent. 
After briefly referring to the plan proposed by M. Mathieu, 
Captain Tyler proceeded to observe that, after a series of 
geological investigations, M. Thomé de Gamond also pro- 
posed, in 1856, the construction of a tunnel, and his propo- 
sitions were submitted to the examination of a scientific 
Committee by order of the French Emperor in that year. 
That commission appears to have come to the conclusion 
that it was desirable to test his investigations by sinking 
shafts and driving short headings under the sea at the ex- 
pense of the two Governments. Mr. Low, an English 
engineer, also laid his plans fora tunnel before the Emperor 
in 1867, and Mr. Hawkshaw, whose attention had been for 
some years directed to the subject, caused a trial boring to’ be 
sunk on each side of the Channel in 1866 in order to test prac- 
tically the result of his geologicalinvestigations. Mr. Reming- 
ton published a plan for a tunnel in 1865, and deposited 
plans and sections of it with the Board of Trade. And 
amongst the names of other proposers or projectors in this 
direction may be enumerated Messrs. Franchot, Tessier, 
Favre, Mayer, Dunn, Austin, Sankey, Boutet, Hawkins 
Simpson, Boyd, and Chalmers. Of these various projects 
those which have of late made the most progress are the 
bridge scheme of M. Boutet, and the tunnel scheme pre- 
sented under the chairmanship of Lord Richard Grosvenor, 
with Messrs. Hawkshaw, Brunlees, and Low as engineers 
on the English side, assisted by Messrs. Talabot, Michel 
Chevalier, and Thomé de Gamond on the French side. The 
result of the deliberations of a French commission, which 
was appointed by the Emperor, and presided over by M. 
Combes, the Director General of the Ecole des Mines, to in- 
quire into this last-mentioned scheme, were on the whole 
favourable as regards the geological and engineering parts of 
the project, though the members of the commission were 
VOL. V. (N.S.) 3.R 
