Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1881 — Underground Life in England. [ARTICLE]

Underground Life in England.

The discussions about the Channel tunnel, and as to the probability of its being generally used by passengers when made, have prompted inquiry into the extent of underground roadways already existing in Great Britain, and the number of persons in the country who are habitually employed at a muchgreater depth beneath the surface than that to which travelers under the Straits of Dover would have to descend. The number of persons employed underground in all the mines in Great Britain is 378,151 The length of underground tunneling in which they work is not less than 58,744 miles. This is the estimate of Messrs. Higson, the mining engineers. As regards depth, the channel is nowhere deeper than 180, and the lowest part of the tunnel would not be below 200 feet from the surface, or 66$ yards. The greatest depth of the underground tunnels connected with our coal and other mines is about 2,Boofeet, and prob ably the smalk st depth 300 feet. From an engineering point of view, then, the question of the channel tunnel seems to be one of adding, roughly speaking, only one-thirtieth of I per cent, to the existing underground passages.— Scier\. tiJIQ American.