A VISIT TO THE CHANNEL TUNNEL. 65 



farther along the South Eastern Railway Company 

 are being compelled to pay attention to the founda- 

 tions of their line. Enormous changes are attributed 

 to this denuding power of the ocean, and it is sup- 

 posed by most geologists that this "tight little 

 island " has been gradually separated from the 

 continent by the wear of ceaseless waves through 

 years uncountable. It may have been, however, 

 that more violent agencies had something to do 

 with the existence of the " silver streak," and perhaps 

 this rent in the earth's ribs was first started by 

 some volcanic shock or spasm of earthquake. One 

 advantage of being a geologist is that you have 

 carte blanche to theorize, and you are not obliged 

 to give yourself any trouble about proof. It is 

 certain, however, that England was once joined to 

 France, for there, on the other side of the twenty 

 odd miles that separate perfidious Albion from her 

 artless neighbour, are the clear evidences of the 

 union which formerly existed. Layer after layer, 

 from the Gault to the upper chalk, appears on the 

 French coast, in exactly the same order and with 

 perfect identity, as regards fossil contents and litho- 

 logical structure, as are exhibited in the Folkestone 

 and Dover cliffs. The dip, or inclination, of those 

 strata is such as to demonstrate that the chalk bed 

 which is most favourable for tunnelling operations 

 lies almost horizontally across the Straits, and there- 

 fore, as Professor Boyd Dawkins, who led our party, 

 drily remarked to us, "Providence evidently intended 

 there should be a Channel Tunnel, whatever the 

 Duke of Cambridge or Lord Wolseley may say." 



5 



