Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/170

Rh On the Gloucestershire side of the river, where there was a difficulty in obtaining any land except directly over the tunnel, a number of wooden houses had been built, following the line of the tunnel. At this point I was afraid to put up brick houses, because the tunnel was to be constructed in gravel, and there would probably be serious settlement when the work was being carried on.

As soon as the 9-ft. barrel was completely bricked, in the middle of this year, a number of shafts were sunk to a depth of 20 feet, from which to put in the permanent drain required by the alteration of gradient. This when finished was to be a 5-ft. barrel.

The ground in which the drain was constructed was principally hard Pennant rock, but for a short distance it passed through the coal-shale. No great quantity of water was met with, and for the first 1,000 feet this was easily disposed of by hand-pumps. From the end of the 1,000 feet the water from this drain was pumped by the Schenk-pumps, which have been mentioned before.

The permission to commence the works at all points enabled us early in 1882 to largely increase the number of men employed; and as soon as the land was purchased, we commenced the open cuttings on both sides of the river.

The progress made during the whole of this year was very good, and there is little to record with regard to it, except that now and then some of those