THE DOVER TUNNEL.

Auckland Star, Volume III, Issue 639, 29 January 1872, Page 3

THE DOVER TUNNEL.

Eepoets from Europe state that the French Government is about granting a charter to a company formed for the purpose of excavating a tunnel under tho Straits of Dover, and thus connecting Great Britain and France by means of railway. This project was started several years ago, but its practicability was doubted,'' under the impression that the tunnel would have to be blasted^ through the solid rock, requiring an immense expenditure of money. It is now, however, confidently asserted by geologists that the bed of the Straits of Dover is composed of grey chalk, which can be easily bored through. Under the view that the bed was composed of hard rock, it was estimated that the tunnel would cost fifty millions of dollars and would take ten years in its construction. Under the theory that the bed of the British Channel between Dover and Calais is formed of chalk, it has been calculated that two tunnels can be completed in four years at a cost of twenty millions. The passage of the British Channel in the ordinary small steamboats is so excessively disagreeable in stormy weather that many persons are deterred from crossing. Should the Straits of Dover be tunnelled there is no doubt that the number of travellers passing under the bed of the Brilish Channel would be very great, particularly as the time of the journey from Dover to Calais would be shortened to a thirty minutes' stay in a railway car. —San Francisco News of the World.