410 REPORT— 1882. 



■whether the engineering and geological requirements are as compatible 

 with its terminating at Dover as at the only two other possible places. 



I have stated that if the tunnel terminates at Dover it must pass 

 under the shore-line to the east of Dover. This must be so for the 

 following reasons. If we take a gradient of 1 in 80, and assume that the 

 level of the rails where the tunnel passes below the shore-line at low- 

 water mark cannot be less than 100 feet below the surface of the fore- 

 shore, we then require a distance of at least two miles between the point 

 where the tunnel passes under the shore and its mouth inland, supposing 

 it to terminate at a point not much above high-water level. The higher 

 its terminal point is above that level to a greater degree will the required 

 distance exceed two miles. From this it will be seen that, if the tunnel 

 passes under the shore-line to the west of Dover, that is, between Dover 

 and Shakespeare Cliff, it will, if it is to terminate in Dover, have to make 

 a useless circuit of two miles inland. But further than this, the sole 

 advantage which it can be alleged is to be gained by crossing the shore- 

 line west of Dover is that of remaining in certain lower beds of chalk, 

 which have their outcrop near Folkestone, some six or seven miles to the 

 west of Dover ; now, this advantage, if it be one, can only be secured by 

 placing the tunnel mouth on the outcrop of the beds in question, that is, 

 in the Folkestone Landslip or on the chalk escarpment to the north of 

 Folkestone. That is to say, the sole reason alleged for going west of 

 Dover precludes the tunnel terminating near that town. From these 

 considerations it will be seen that, if the tunnel terminates in the Valley 

 of the Dour, it should cross the shore-line to the east of Dover, and there 

 are other and far more weighty reasons why the tunnel should leave our 

 coast to the east of Dover. 



The 25lans deposited by the Channel Tunnel Company, this session, 

 show the sea tunnel to begin at Fan Hole, which lies a short distance to 

 the west of the South Foreland Lighthouse. The first line laid down by 

 Sir .Tohn Hawkshaw, in 18G7, left our coast near the same point. It was 

 afterwards moved to St. Margaret's Bay, further to the east, and was so 

 shown in the plans on which the French concession was obtained. In 

 both cases the tunnel was shown to pass in a direct line to the Ferme 

 Mouron in France. 



Now, a line drawn from a point about half a mile east of Fan Hole, 

 to a point about half a mile to the west of the French works at 

 Sangatte, is the shortest line between the two countries, measured from 

 low water to low water, and is about 20^ miles long. From Fan Hole to 

 the Ferme Mouron, in a direct line (Line B on Plan, PI. V.), is 21^ miles, 

 and from the same place to the boring made in 1876, near Sangatte, is 

 20| miles (Line No. 1 on Plan, PL V.). Practically this last is as short 

 a line as can well be obtained. For to move the point of departure east- 

 wards in England would be to lengthen the land tunnel in order slightly 

 to shorten the sea tunnel, and geological conditions prevent onr moving 

 the line further to the west in France. 



As we move the point of departure on the English coast to the west, 

 we increase the length of the most direct line to the Fi'ench coast, and as 

 we move it to the west of Dover this length is rapidly increased, for the 

 tunnel cannot be made in a straight line from any point in England, west 

 of Dover, but must be made in a curve, deviating considerably from the 

 most direct line. Thus from Fan Hole, or thereabouts, the shortest line 

 for the sea tunnel is obtainable ; again, as Fan Hole is distant a little 



