Page:Whymper - Scrambles amongst the Alps.djvu/471

Rh The advanced galleries of the Mont Cenis tunnel were successfully joined upon Dec. 26, 1870. Their progress in 1870 was unusually rapid. In the first eleven months, 1511 mètres were driven; whereas in the whole of 1869 they progressed only 1431 mètres. At the end of 1870 about 1000 mètres of the tunnel still remained to be lined with masonry, and it was anticipated that it could be quite finished, ready for use, by July or August 1871. The railway from Susa to Bardonnêche will also be completed by that time, but the line that is to connect Modaue with St. Michel will not be ready until about the end of the year, so that the opening of the tunnel will probably be delayed until this latter period.

Signor F. Giordano (inspector of Italian mines) made some observations upon the natural temperature of the rock in the tunnel, at the end of 1870; and I learn that the highest reading he obtained (near the centre) was 85°1 Faht. The temperature of the air at the same part was slightly above 86°. About 85° will doubtless be the temperature of the middle of the tunnel for a considerable time, although it is sure to cool gradually. Travellers who go through it in the winter time will, therefore, pass from an almost arctic climate to a sub-tropical one in a distance of three and a half miles.

The following paragraph (appended as a note to pp. 78-9) explains itself:—

A .—On Friday morning, Jan. 13, it was discovered that one of the coal-pits at West Ardsley, near Leeds, belonging to the West Yorkshire Iron and Coal Company, had taken fire, and the most serious consequences were imminent. The men and boys, amounting to several hundreds, were drawn out of the pit with the utmost rapidity, and the usual measures taken for extinguishing such fires. This pit is fortunately worked by machine coal-cutters, driven by compressed air. The pipes which convey the compressed air into the workings were promptly connected with the water reservoir at the surface, and the water transmitted through the pipes to the place where the fire was raging. Through the great pressure of the water, the shaft being 170 yards deep, there was a powerful stream steadily playing upon the burning matter, and in less than an hour the fire was subdued and all danger overcome. It seems that at the spot where the fire took place there is a 'throw,' or 'fault,' and some gas had accumulated, which, on the firing of a shot, was ignited, and thus set fire to the coal and waste. The fortunate circumstance that the pit is worked by air-machinery has saved the proprietors from the loss of many thousands of pounds, which otherwise would have been inevitable, and a very large population would have been thrown out of employment during this very inclement season.—Standard, Jan. 17, 1871.