Review of ReiietBi, 1/10/06. 



Leading Articles. 



387 



A TUNNEL TO THE CLOUDS. 



The Making of the Jungfrau Railway. 



Mr. H. G. Archer has written for the August 

 Pall Mall Magazine an article on the Jungfrau Rail- 

 way. 



He tells how the idea of the railway first came to 

 its projector, Herr Guyer Zeller of Zurich, who, by 

 the way, was not an engineer, but a financier. 

 Ever)- difficulty was put in his way, one being that 

 he must satisfy the Swiss authorities that no evil 

 consequences would follow to the passengers car- 

 ried upwards to a height of 6000 feet in a couple 

 of hours. The aesthetic objection was met by the 

 promise that the railway should run in a tunnel, and 

 that the stations should be hidden away in the 

 mountains. The concession was granted in Decem- 

 ber, 1894, and when, the financial problem was 

 solved, the work began in 1897. 



THE SIX-MILE TUNNEL. 



The railway starts from the Little Scheidegg Sta- 

 tion, nearly 6700 feet above the sea, and at the first 

 station, in less than a mile and a quarter, an ascent 

 of nearly 1000 feet has been made. A feature of 

 the line is the new panorama of scenerj- opened up 

 at every station. The six-mile tunnel to the summit 

 of the Jungfrau begins above Kigergletscher Sta- 

 tion ; at present it extends to Eismeer Station, a 

 distance of three-and-a-half miles. The ■ cutting of 

 the tunnel seems still a serious undertaking. Its 

 dimensions are fourteen feet in height by twelve 

 feet in breadth. In the summer of 1898 the first 

 section of the line to Eigergletscher was opened ; 

 by August, 1905, the fourth section, from Eiger- 

 wand to Eismeer, was ready; and it is expected 

 the whole line will be finished about 1910. 



THE BLASTING WOEK. 

 Not more than a hundred miners are at work on 

 the railway, for it is impossible in such a railway to 

 split up the work into several stages, owing to the 

 fact that stores and provisions cannot be carried 

 over such a waste of glaciers, inaccessible for a 

 great part of the year. Mr. Archer describes the 

 work which is carried on by the Italian miners in 

 three eight-hour shifts: — 



At present tlie tunnel past Eismeer is a bive of industrv. 

 Tlie buzzin? noise of the drills eating their way upwards 

 in hard limestone is loudly audible. When an " aftaque " 

 of five holes has been bored it is blasted with electrically- 

 detonated dynamite cartridges. At each explosion it sounds 

 asthouerhthe mountain above, behind, and l>elow had been 

 struck with a colossal sledge-hammer, and that the whole 

 superincumbent mass must be toppling down. Volleys of 

 stones rain down the front of the galleries, and rattle' with 

 a noise of rifle-shots as they strike the ice-sea. while the 

 great bang itself echoes again and again among the sur- 

 rounding snow-peaks. 



CUT OFF PEOM THE OUTSIDE WORLD. 



More work is done in winter than in the summer, 

 fnr the ordinan- traffic has ceased: — 



The headquarters of the works are at Eigergletscher, 

 Tvith comfortable barracks for the engineering staff and 

 the miners, workshops, food and fuel etores. locomotive 



sheds, and dynamite magazines, together with a bakery 

 and a hospital. The bakery, which is electrically operate 1, 

 bakes fresh bread daily for all of the employes, and in 

 winter time an electrical apparatus is constantly at work 

 melting the ice to provide drinking water. 



As Eigergletscher is completely cut off from the outside 

 world for six months of tlie year, great stores of fuel and 

 provisions Inot forgetting cigars) sufficient to last the resi- 

 dential community eight months, are collected here in the 

 autumn. 



NEW LINK BETWEEN BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



Less than Three Hours' Passage. 



Mr. H. G. Archer, in the World's Work and 

 flay, describes the new route to Ireland via Fish- 

 guard in Pembrokeshire, and Rosslare, which is 

 opened this month. The Great Western Railway 

 has set about realising Brunei's unfinished work of 

 building a harbour at Fishguard, and is connectin;^ 

 the same with its general system. The making of 

 the port has occupied ten years. Three million ton,'; 

 of quartzite rock have been removed to form at the 

 foot of the cliffs a quay space half a mile long and 250 

 feet wide. The carving of the quay was effected by 

 the explosion of mines, one of which brought down 

 180,000 tons of rock. To protect the harbour from 

 the north and north-east there has been erected a 

 breakwater 2000 feet long. An interesting feature 

 of the work is the laying out of the village at the 

 top of the cliff (300 feet high) to accommodate the 

 men employed at the port. Twenty-seven acres of 

 land have been planted with 80,000 pines, behind 

 which the houses are being built. 



THE THREE " SAINTS." 



From Fishguard to Rosslare the distance is sixty- 

 two statute miles. Between Holyhead and Queen- 

 town the distance is sixty-four statute miles. This 

 stretch is thus being covered: — 



The three new steamers built for the service excel in 

 equipment and speed those of any other Channel service. 

 They bear the appropriate names of St. George, St. Patrick, 

 and St. David. The Parsons turbines with which they are 

 engined are capable of propelling them at a mean speed 

 of 22^ knots per hour. The dimensions of the vessels are: 

 length. 350 ft.: beam. 40 ft.: draught. 14 ft.; and gross 

 tonnage. 3500 tons. There is room on board for 1000 pas- 

 sengers, and sleeping accommodation is provided for 250 

 . first-class and lOO second-class passengers. 



The ves-sels will perform the voyage between Fishguard 

 and Rosslare well under three hours. There is neither rock 

 nor cliannel to imjiede or delay navigation. Tlie rout« will 

 thus afford ijoth the shortest and safest sea-passage be- 

 tween England and Ireland. Another special recommenda- 

 tion in favour of the Fishguard Harbour is that, owing 

 to the exceptionl climatic conditions. Fishguard is more 

 tree from fog than any other part on the coast. 



The time-table arranged for the service gives two express 

 boat trains leaving London at 8.45 a.m. and 8.45 p.m. re- 

 spectively. Each is to perform the journey to Fishguard in 

 5i hours, calling only at Cardiff and S\vansea en route. 

 while Rossclare is reached within 8i hours from tlie time 

 of leaving London. Waterford in 9J hours. Cork in 12J. and 

 KiUarney in less than 14 hours. Tlie service from Ireland 

 to England is precisely the same. Thus travellers are 

 given facilities for breakfasting in London and supping 

 the same night midst the lakes and landscapes of Southern 

 Ireland. 



The hope is cherished that Fishguard may be 

 chosen as a port of call by Atlantic liners: — 



The distance from London to Queenstown. vid Fishguard 

 and Rosslare, is 469 miles, whereas the mails consigned 

 rid Holyhead and Kingstown travel 513 miles. 



