A VISIT TO THE CHANNEL TUNNEL. 67 



of the tunnelling operations. If the tunnel should 

 ever become un fait accompli, there will be inclined 

 planes of considerable length on the two coasts, 

 gradually leading to the bottom. It has, perhaps, 

 not been generally understood through the country 

 that the work has progressed so far as we found to 

 be the case, and something like surprise was felt 

 even by our legislators when the indefatigable 

 " hecklers " of St. Stephen's elicited the fact that 

 over two miles of tunnel had actually been com- 

 pleted. On the English side 2,400 yards, and on 

 the French side 1,600 yards, have been excavated. 

 At present the work is at a standstill, and seems 

 likely to remain so if we may judge from the recent 

 votes of Parliament. 



Geologists and mining engineers are quite agreed 

 as to the practicability of this gigantic undertaking. 

 The problem of ventilation may be regarded as 

 solved, and it is not likely that the atmosphere of 

 the tunnel will ever be any worse than that of the 

 Metropolitan Railway. The possibility of faults 

 being encountered is a more formidable question, 

 although it is not thought by experienced geologists 

 that there can be any considerable alterations in the 

 submarine strata. Professor Boyd Dawkins, who 

 has measured and examined every foot of the rocks 

 concerned, so far as they are accessible, is of opinion 

 that the one care of the excavators must be to 

 keep out of the Gault clay, and then such minor 

 faults as might occur may be rendered harmless 

 by the use of iron tubes, or by lining the exposed 



