BY SEVERN, TAFF, AND TOWY 151 



at Pilning, about fourteen miles from Bristol and a 

 mile from the river-bank in Gloucestershire, and, 

 crossing the Severn with fifty feet of solid rock above 

 the crown of the arch in the middle of the stream, 

 comes up again in another mile of deep cutting to the 

 South Wales Ime at Portskewet. So, with two miles 

 of open work and more than two miles of tunnelling, 

 this undertaking represents from four to five miles of 

 expensive railway. It was commenced in 1873, and 

 completed and opened for passenger traffic in 1887, 

 at a cost of about two millions sterling. 



In the formation of the tunnel, a diver performed a 

 noteworthy feat. Mr. Charles Eichardson, C.E., in 

 charge of the tunnel works, tells the story. 



During the progress of the works, it became neces- 

 sary to shut a door in a driftway, full of water, formed 

 under the bed of the river. It was a quarter of a 

 mile away from a deep shaft in which water had 

 risen more than a hundred feet. The driftway itself 

 was only a few feet square, and along this pitch-dark, 

 narrow passage, hindered by timber struttmgs above, 

 and by rails and rough debris on the floor below, it 

 seemed impossible for any human being to pass and 



shut the door. 



The diver, Lambert, was sent off. Although 

 strange to the works, he went down the deep, water- 

 logged shaft without hesitation, and, in the dark, 

 groped his way along the driftway until he got within 

 seventy yards of the door, but could drag his air-pipe 

 no further. He had a terrible time in getting back to 



