CITY'S HOLLOW FLOOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20779, 23 January 1931, Page 14

CITY'S HOLLOW FLOOR.

PERIL IN PARIS. UNDERGROUND PASSAGES. If Paris is in constant danger of flood because the door of the Seine Valley is too hard to absorb tho rain which falls upon it, there is another danger which arises from tho fact that tho floor of the town itself is in many places hollow.

Most tourists already know that the catacombs, although they havo become a cemetery of human bones, nro in re.-ulity nothing elso than disused underground quarries; but few pooplo realiso to what extent previous generations of workmen havo burrowed under tho surface upon which enormous buildings nro now being constructed. Recent rains havo caused subsidences at two points on two succeeding days, and houses havo had to bo condemned. Parisians havo thus been reminded that fliev do not always have solid ground beneath their feet. A whole service of engineers is constantly engaged in inspecting theso underground passages, and they serve notices upon owners of laud who wish to build, setting out the measures which must be adopted to consolidate tho foundations. They even havo powers to cause these measures to be carried out, at tho owners' expense, when the latter havo themselves neglected to do so. There exists a map of the subsoil of Paris which shows that extensivo disused underground quarries exist in almost all parts of tho town, but they aro particularly numerous in the fifteenth "arrondisBCincnt," to tho south-west, a district where many blocks of flats are being built.