16 SEPTEMBER 1871, Page 3

On Wednesday, the first train passed through the Mont Cenis

tunnel,—passing from Italy to the north side of the Alps in forty minutes,—certainly the longest and rapidest subterranean journey ever yet made. The highest temperature of the carriages is said to have been 25° Centigrade (i. e., 77° Fahrenheit). There was a good deal of anxiety as to the return journey, lest the steam let off in the tunnel might have been still hanging there in clouds. But two hours later, when the train returned (in 55 minutes) to the Italian side, there was no trace of the vapour "which had escaped on the first journey. After thus successfully boring the Alps at their very base, the busy human mole 'will hardly fail to push his scientific burrow under the Channel itself.