Lecturing at the Royal Geographical Society on Monday night, Sir
Francis Fox gave an interesting account of the engineering
problems involved in the construction of the Channel Tunnel and of its far-reaching influence on traveL To keep the Tunnel well within the thickness of the grey chalk there would be a slight curve. The maximum depth of water over the Tunnel would be from Mit. to 180 ft., and the roof of chalk over the structure had been fixed at a minimum of 100 ft. The Tunnel would have a dip in the level of the rails, forming a water-lock by which the Tunnel could, in an emergency, be filled with water from floor to roof for the length of a mile. The Orient Express of the future would start from Charing Cross and run through toConstantineple, thence branching, via Asia Minor, Palestine, and Egypt. to link up with the Cape-to-Cairo Railway, or viei Baghdad to Karachi and India. Trains would run direct from London to Paris in less than six hours, and the Nord Express from Petrograd would connect with the Trans-Siberian Line and China.
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