Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/259

156 in inspecting the engine-house, school-rooms, men’s houses, mission-hall, etc.

On the day the train passed through, the water had risen in the ground outside the tunnel to a height of about 105 feet, and the pressure shown upon the pressure-gauges was 45½ lbs. per square inch. At this pressure a small quantity of water found its way through the joints in the brickwork, and in some places made quite a respectable shower into the tunnel.

On the 7th September I left the works for South America. There had been a great strain upon me for many months, and I was glad to get on board the royal mail steamboat Neva, at Southampton, on the 9th, and to think that the tunnel was all right, and that I should be out of reach of all telegrams and letters for at least four weeks. We reached Buenos Ayres on the 6th October, and I purposed remaining there till the 17th November, to verify information which had been given to me, and to complete my estimates for the Madero Port at that place. On the 30th I received a telegram: ‘Sir John Hawkshaw says you must come home on the 1st.’ I replied that it was impossible. I finally left South America on the 18th November for Southampton.

Arriving at Southampton on the 14th December, I received the first intimation that there had been further troubles at the tunnel. After I had left on the 9th September, the water, continuing to rise