882 



UlTORT — 1884. 



in the dilFerent piirts of llio Hlratuin ffiviiiff the head' to producn ihnt travel; 

 hnw far tliis hoifjlit is likely to bo iitli'i'tcd l)y tlu^ ]»mupiiij; itf the dcsiri.'d (inuiititv • 

 whftiier, if ri'-iir tho outllosv into Iho sea, I'ae mjmidng \a liktdy to levcr.si' tlio 

 diiet'tion of the currt'iit, and to hrintir hack brackish water, and wlicijier tlin rocks 

 are of mich a character as to be liable to yield a wator impre^rnated with iron or 

 witli lime, and whether tiiese wiiter-l)eariti;.' I'ocks arti accessible from tlie siirfacr 

 withodt the execution of costly and lalxirious work in passini,' thnin;,'h overly in;,' 

 strata of an unlit or it may bu even of a danpirous character. It need hardly lio 

 haid that the onf,'ineer wl en onjrafreil in metalliferous mininjr, or in tho extraction 

 of coal or of pc'troleum, unlesii) heap])lies ihe science of Section (J, is but a haplia/iird 

 explorer whoso work' is more likely to end in disaster tiian in success, A;:iiiii, 

 tlio eufiineer, when layinjj; out a railway, has to consider the (.'eoloirical fratiircs 

 of the country in lixint; the anjxles of his cuttinjja, and in deterniiiiin;.' when' it 

 becomes more economical to tunnel than to cut. Indeed, without tho appli- 

 cation of that science to en^nneeriiitr there nn^ some enterprises on the fMusi- 

 Itility ('f which tlio eiisrinoer would not bo ablo to pronounce an oiiiiiion— n 

 notable instance, the Channel Tunnel. 'J'lie eiif^ineers, of whom i am oin', 

 said there is a material, the compact iion-water-bearin;;: frrey clinlk, wliirli 

 we have at a convenient depth on tin? JMifrlisli side, and is of all niaterinlH 

 tho most suitable ; if that exist the whole way across, success is certain. Then 

 caino jreoloijrical science, and that told the enirineer that in l''riince the sniiu; 

 material existed ; that, it existed in the same pii>ition in relation to other loniiii- 

 tioiis as it existed in I']n}.'laiid ; that tho line of outcro)) of the ;:ault lyiiip below ii 

 iiad been checked across; and that taken tuL^etlier, these indications enabled n 

 confident opinion to be exi)ro.«.«ed that it was all but (iertain this be(I of ^'rey diiilk 

 did ])revail from side to side. 1'heentrineers believed it, an intellifrent section of tin 

 pidilic believed it, and came forward with their money; laiye sums were expended in 

 J"]ni,daiid and in France on the I'uith of (he rejH'ated declaration of the Ijifrlisli 

 Government (of both sides of ]K)lilics), tiiat so loiifj as the nation was not called 

 on to contribute towards tho cost .if the work, it would hail with sutisfactiou the 

 improved means of comnuinicntiou bet weon ]"]ii^daiid and the Continent ; the experi- 

 mental works were carried on from both sides with the liap])iest results, and then. 

 when success appeared certain, the wlnde work was stopped by Ihe incredihlr 

 su;>frestion that in the e\eiit of a war the soldiers of Eufrlaiid, and the science 

 of Enjrland, could not defend u couple of rat-holes, holes 14 feet in dianieter and 

 20 miles lonp, situated far below the .-iirfaco of the sea, haviD<^ a rapid dip from 

 the shore to alow point, {rradnally risiii'r from there to the centre of the lemjrtli 

 of the tunnel, so that tho linj^lish end could be Hooded with sea-water in twc'iity- 

 live minutes up to the solHt of the arch at the dip ; and in consenueiice of this in- 

 credible and most-to-be-ashamed-of scare a ston has been iiiit. not only to one 

 of the finest instances of civil eng-ineeriufj worlc in connection with the .science 

 of geolofry, but also as I believe to one of the most useful works that has ever 

 been proposed. 



To come to Section 1), tho botanical side of it is interest inp' to the en- 

 frineer aa instructiiifjf him in the locality and quality of the various woods that I 

 he occasionally uses in his worJc. With re<rard to that most important part of 

 the work of D, which relates to 'f,'erms' and their uitliience upon health, the 

 eng-ineer deals with it thus far : he bears in mind that the water supply must be 

 pure, and that the building must be ventilated, and that excreta must be removed 

 without causing contamination; thus the waterworks en<rineer, tiie vyarming' and! 

 ventilating engineer, and the .sewage engineer can (and do) all of them profit j 

 by the labours of Section D, and can by their works assist in giving pnvcticid 

 value to the pure science of that section. j 



Section E, Grof/raphij, Probably in these days, when our kingdom at home 

 and the old coimtries near us are all "but full of the works of the engineer, there 

 are few who take a greater intere.st in geography than he does, and I am quite sure! 

 there are none who make a more useful application of geographical knowledge fori 

 the benefit of mankind at large than does the engineer. Almost at the outset of J 

 this address I claimed to magnify Section G, on the ground that without the aid ofj 



