VII 



SOME TUNNELLING FEATS 



WHAT would Napoleon have given for a 

 tunnel under the Alps and the trains, which 

 convey, without effort, thousands of people 

 in a fraction of the time it took to get those 

 troops over one section of the great moun- 

 tain passes! 



These great feats of engineering dwarf 

 completely anything in this country, but it 

 is only fair to our own engineers to state 

 that from the point of view of danger and 

 drawbacks, the tunnel under the Severn 

 vies with anything attempted abroad. 



The Alps are pierced by several great 

 tunnels to-day, yet who, off-hand, could 

 mention the name of one of the engineers 

 who were responsible for them? 



It is one of the ironies of life that the 

 men who have been constructive in their 



58 



