The Dover Tunnel.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 118, 13 February 1872, Page 6

The Dover Tunnel.

Reports from Europe state that the French i Government is about granting a charter to a ! company formed for the purpose of excavat--1 ing a tunnel under the Straits of Dover, and | thus connecting Great Britain and Franco by | means of a railway. Tins project, was started I several years ago, but its practibility was | doubted, under the impression that the tmij nol would have to bo blasted through the j solid rock, requiring an immense expenditure of money. It is now, however, confidently 1 assorted by geologists that the bed of the ! Straits of Dover is composed of grey chalk, j which can be easily bored through. Under i the view that the bed was composed of hard ! rock, it was estimated that the tunnel would | cost fifty millions of dollars and wquld take ton years in construction. Under the theory that the bed of the British Channel between I 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 I million. The passage of the British Channel in the ordinary mail steamboats is so exces- | sively disagreeable in stormy weather that many persons are deterred from crossing. Should the Straits bo tunnelled there is no I doubt that the number of travellers passing under the bed of the British Channel would be very great, particularly as the time of : the journey from Dover to Calais would bo shortened to a thirty minutes’ stay in a rail- : way car.