The Mont Cenis Tunnel, as it is called, between France
and Italy, was "completed," that is, cut through, on Saturday. It is really a railway tunnel under Mont Tabor, 711- miles long, with a gradient of only 1 in 120. The tunnel was commenced twelve years ago, has been carried on ever since, and has been exclusively in the hands of Italian engineers on both sides of the Alps, who have devised and perfected the unique machinery by whigl the boring has been effected. No shafts could be sunk, and the engineers had to calculate to a nicety the meeting-point of two tunnels driven towards each other from two aides of the mountains, under a hill upwards of 10,000 feet high. The slightest swerve or error in level would have been fatal, but it has been avoided. The work is in the highest degree creditable even to Italian engineers, though they ranked before as amongst the beat in the world.
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