TUNNEL TO THE CLOUDS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LII, Issue 9188, 7 September 1906, Page 7

TUNNEL TO THE CLOUDS.

A year ago, when it opened its new station at Msmeer, 10,00Qft above sea level, the Jungtrau railway (says H. G Archer, in the Pall Mail Magazine) wai »We to boast the highest railway station va Europe and the highest tunnel station in the world. Its projector, Herr GuyerZeUer, of Zurich, was not an engineer, but a financier, lite story goes tihat 3se iras strolling down the mountain patih that hads from the Stihitthorn to Murren, and that in the course of it, with the Jungfraa steadily in front of him, fihe inspiration came to him to scale it with a railway. Several years elapsed before tihe bold idea . took concrete shape. All sorts of objections and scruples were raised. Herr Zoller had first to satisfy the Swiss authoi?ti.es that no evil consequences would ensue to passengers by being carried 6000 ft upwards in a couple of hours. Then there was tihe aesthetic objection tihat the mountain scenery would be disfigured; but thas was set at rest by a promise to run tihe railway in tunnel all the way, and hide even the stations away inside the mountains. At last Herr Zeller secured Ihis concession on December 21, 1894. It stipulated, among other things, that persons climbing to the summit on foot should have free access to all parts of it; and that the company should spend 100,000 francs on a permanent observatory at the Jungfrau station, for meteorological, telA luraJ .and otiher physical researches, and contribute an extra thousand francs a moath towards its expenses. At last, also, the great financial problem was solved, and the worlTs'were begun in 1897. From the fifth, intermediate station (11,142 ft), ascending through the ridge, tiie completed line will enter tihe rooky mass forming the Jungfrou summit, wind spirally round the uppermost block of tihe mountain, and emerge in the rocks on & plateau well known to the guides, at 13,000 ft above sea leveL "This platform of a thousand square feet will be 239 ft below the snow-covered summit, and is free from snow during the summer month r. From ibis level a perpendicular lift will convey the passengers to the highest pinnacle of the Jungfiaiu, 13,688 ft above the level of the sea. And the view thus afforded, as all the world knows, embraces the whole Alpine region of Switzerland. The construction of the line has so far been a alow and laborious undertaking, chiefly owing to tihe intense hardness of thej limestone and gneiss' through which tihe great tunnel is being driven, and the only compensation is tie fact that it requires no lining of brick or masonry. The dimensions of tihe tunnel are 14ft in height by 12ft in breadth. The first section of the line, to Eigergietsscfoer, was opened for traffic in tihe summer of 1898, a year after commencement; the fourth, from Eigerwand to Eismeer, in August, 1905 ; and it is now anticipated the whole Hne will be finished about, 1910. Then, And not til then, the once inaccessible summit, that was trodden by human foot for the first time w 1811 (and the feat was repeated only about four times in half a century), will be rendered accessible to every man, woman and child witih 45 francs to spend. Moreover, travellers will be able to aay that they have "walked up," for between the inner and outer cyfindere of the lift sJbaft a corkscrew stairway is to be fitted. Truly the promoters of t&e enterprise know tlheir public Tine daring projector only lived long enough to see his scheme fairly started, for he died in tihe prime of' life, in 1899. The Town Hall of Welaford, New | Brunewick, was -wracked by lightning on hie night of July 12, while an Orange dance in celebration of the battle of the Boyne wae in progress. A man and a girl were killed, 20 other dancers w«*e rendered unconecious, and over 100 we» injured. A thunderstorm, which) was the , severest known for years, broke over the J district, and the Town Hail was struck about midnight when the dance was in full swing. The shock was terrific A wild panic followed, and in the rash to get out of the hall several people were crushed. Lady-help, caTpentens. smart boy wanted by ladvertiserß. WHAT MB JOHN STEVENS, M.H.R., THINKS OF RHEUMO. Mr John Stevens, of BuUb, the member for Manawatu, haa a high opinion of Rheumo. Read what he writes: "I had a aem attack of rheumattan, and was advied to try Rheumo. I dad so, with moet satisfactory results. After taking two bottles it pmctioaly. cured me. I have no hesitation in wpng that J onT n™*? is the best I have used." Try Rheumo v yourself. If given «-*** ***** *y™ quickly cow, rheumatism, goat, ecmttca, lumbago, and lrirdred diseases. ATI chemists and storekeepers sell it at Za 6d and 4s €d a bottle. 9 For Bronchial Coughs and Colds, Woods' Great Peppermint Cure, Is 6d and 2s 6d per faottk.