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THE SEVERN TUNNEL.
Progress of the work—1884. but between Sudbrook and 5 miles 4 chains there was not only a quantity of water dripping from the roof, but there were ladders to climb, and, at any rate on the 17th October, a small and not very clean hole to crawl through, with a face of 4 feet or 5 feet between the two headings to be climbed up.
On the 9th August of this year the members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, who were holding their annual meeting at Cardiff, visited the Severn Tunnel Works, and were able to examine them all with the exception of the short length at the Great Spring. Arriving by train from Cardiff at the point since known as Severn Tunnel Junction, they were transferred from passenger carriages to trucks fitted up with seats, and drawn by one of the locomotives employed upon the works, in which they passed through the open cutting to the mouth of the tunnel. Descending from the trucks, some members of the Institution elected to walk over the top of the tunnel, but the greater number continued their examination, walking through the finished works underneath. Meeting with a rough road to travel and here and there some little water, other members chose to go up by the cages at the Hill Pit; others, again, dropped off when the Marsh Pit was reached; but a goodly number continued their walk through the tunnel to 5 miles 4 chains, and were then drawn to the surface, and found their train waiting for them. After examining the brick-making machinery they proceeded to Sudbrook,