I 1 THE HOOSAC TUNNEL: ITS CONDITION AND PROSPECTS. By F. W. BIBB. "My little finger shall be thicker than *****'$ loins. For whereas ***** put a heavy yoke upon you, I will put more to your yoke; he chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." — II. Chron. x. 10, 11. An- nt H E, 1771 BOSTON: IGHT & POTTER, PRINTERS, 4 SPRING LANE. 18 6-5. THE HOOSAC TUNNEL: ITS CONDITION AND PROSPECTS. By F. "W. BIBB. "My little finger sliall be thicker than loins. For -whereas ***** put a heavy yoke upon you, I will put more to your yoke; he chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." —II. Chbon. x. 10,11. BOSTON: WRIGHT & POTTER, PRINTERS, 4 SPRING LANE. 1 8 6 5. SEP 16 1916 LIBRARY rVXEAO OF RAILWAY ECONOMICS, VOASHINCTCN. 3. C. H Ei^yi M M7 / & (p L £— THE HOOSAC TUNNEL. Editor Daily Advertiser: It has seemed to me for some time that the day is approach¬ ing when the people of the State would like to know the actual state of things at the Hoosac Tunnel. While the war lasted, public attention could not be diverted to a matter of compara¬ tive insignificance. Henceforth, we shall have opportunity to look into questions of State policy. I trust it will not be regarded as a piece of presumption on my part, if I attempt to contribute my mite to the fund of public knowledge upon this subject, in the hope that it may be the means of awakening a general interest in a matter of such importance in the present condition of the finances of the State. It is to be regretted that the public have such imperfect means of information as to the condition of this enterprise. The con¬ struction put upon the Act under which the Commissioners were originally appointed, (chap. 156, Acts of 1862,) makes the Commissioners practically irresponsible and independent of all control. Section 5th of that Act provides that " said Com¬ missioners shall have authority, with the approval of the Governor and Council, to continue the work on the Hoosac Tunnel, Ac.," and section 7th provides that " the Governor is hereby authorized to draw his warrant on the Treasurer of the Commonwealth for such sums as may be required from time to time by the Commissioners for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act, and the amount of the same is hereby appropriated therefor." The construction adopted is this, that the Governor and Council having authorized the Commission¬ ers to "continue" the work, the Governor is bound to draw his warrant for whatever money " may be required by the Commissioners." The whole question turns upon the meaning 4 of the word " required; " the Commissioners claiming that it means " demanded," and that the Governor and Council have no discretion but must comply with their requisition ; their opponents insisting that it means " needed," and that the Governor and Council are to be judges of that necessity. It would be interesting to discuss this matter, philologically and historically, but at present I pass it by. It is enough for our present purpose to state, that the construction put upon the Act by the Commissioners has been adopted, and that since they commenced operations they have had unlimited and irre¬ sponsible power. It is important that this should be stated, that it may be seen that for all failures or blunders the Com¬ missioners, and they alone, are responsible. Upon this matter of responsibility, it is fair to say, that so far as it depends on personal inspection, the Commissioners must be about as ignorant of the actual state of things as almost any other three men in the State. The chairman has visited the work once or twice at the most during the year; another, possibly once ; and one of them, not at all. Still, they will not shrink from responsibility on this account. Perhaps it would be fair to apportion the responsibility between them in the ratio of their respective salaries. The chairman receiving four thousand dollars yearly, and each of the others one thou¬ sand dollars, the responsibility would rest upon the chairman as four to one upon each of the others ; in other words, the chairman bears two-thirds, each of the others one-sixth. It seems unfortunate, at least, that the State cannot have the benefit of the services of a resident engineer, who can be trusted with the conduct of the work. Of course, without disparaging in the least the capacities of the chief engineer at the works, we are bound to assume that these three gentlemen would not take six thousand dollars a year out of the State treasury except on the grounds that, in their judgment, Mr. Doane is not competent to take the responsible charge of the work. Understand, I make no such imputation ; 011 the other hand, I firmly believe, and I think it will appear in the course of this examination, that the interests of the State would have been better served had the chairman resigned or been removed a year ago, and the entire management of the work been left in the hands of Mr. Doane, under the supervision of another 5 member of the commission, an eminently practical man, and the only member who appears to have comprehended the nature and magnitude of the enterprise, and the difficulties with which it is surrounded. A few weeks ago I visited the tunnel. I propose to record some of my observations :— The West End. The rate of progress at the West end has been slow thus far, and bids fair to be slower still in future. The material encoun¬ tered here is entirely different from that at the East end, and at the Central Shaft. A profile of the mountain on the line of the tunnel shows an elevation of about 1,760 feet at the sum¬ mit, near the westerly side. From here the descent towards the west is quite rapid, the rocks being in some cases perpen¬ dicular, and occasionally overhanging. At the level of three hundred feet above the tunnel, the surface line changes from steep to gentle and rolling, continuing thus for half a mile to the point selected for the western portal of the tunnel. The shaft sunk by the former contractors is located at the foot of the sharp declivity. Geologically speaking, the mountain proper terminates at this point, and its prevailing mica slate, interspersed with masses and veins of quartz, disappears. The half mile of ridges intervening to the west face of the tunnel is composed of wholly different materials, belonging to a later period in the earth's chronology. The Commissioners began their operations at the West end early in 1864. Their plan was to make an open cutting of the usual railroad cross-section up to the point where the surface is eighty feet above the grade of the road. Here the tunnel was to be commenced. It would of course be necessary to finish the open cutting with a slope towards the mountain, as well as on each side. This part of the work was accomplished at great expense, in about one year; and some time last spring, a head¬ ing, or drift, fourteen feet wide and seven feet high, had been commenced and excavated under the mountain slope one hun¬ dred and ten feet, to a point where the roof was forty feet thick. The materials near the surface of the ground, and for a short distance in the shallowest part of the open excavation, are common earth and hard pan. These gradually change l* 6 into a substance that is neither earth nor rock, in any common acceptation of those terms. A careful observer remarked that he was " at a loss to decide whether it is earth turning to rock, like that of the mountain, or rock turning to earth." The most appropriate name I heard it called by was " demoralized rock." In its normal condition it is tough and hard, like rock, but when exposed to the combined influences of air and water, it runs away like quicksand ; or, if pent up, it becomes " por¬ ridge." It abounds in seams, or crevices, from which issue numerous springs and little streams of water. The one hun¬ dred and ten feet of heading accomplished at the West end required a stout frame-work, or lining of heavy timbers and plank, to be set up as fast as the excavation was made, in order to resist the pressure and weight of the surrounding material. At first, the progress here was fair, sometimes amounting to three or four feet in a day of twenty-four hours. This favor¬ able state of things continued for a few days, when the quantity of water began to increase, "demoralizing" the rock, and converting it into an unmanageable fluid, which could neither be drained, nor shovelled, nor pumped. Pouring down from the top, rushing in from the sides, boiling up from the bottom, in a few days it had let daylight through the forty feet of roof¬ ing. Owing to the peculiarity of this material before referred to, it will stand vertically at almost any height so long as it is dry; whereas, as soon as the water touches it, it is disinte¬ grated or " demoralized," and changed into a " porridge," worse, if possible, than the worst quicksand. The serious nature of the difficulty may be inferred from the fact that this bad material was struck in December last, nine months ago, and since then the whole progress made, with indefatigable labor by as many men as could work in the cramped quarters, inclusive of the advance of three or four feet a day at first, has been one hundred and twenty-five feet! The managers are at their wits' ends. The disheartening look of the enterprise finds emphatic expression in the countenances and in the movements of all concerned, down to the Hibernian with his pick and wheelbarrow. This is very noticeable, in contrast with the cheerful and lively appearance of matters at the Central Shaft and at the east face, where the progress is highly encouraging. Indeed, despondency broods over the 7 whole western side, relieved only by the forlorn hope that " something will turn up " in the shape of a feasible contrivance for cribbing and confining the slippery material. It is a good deal as one of the workmen said : " Be jabers, ye might as well try to shovel a cart-load of live eels ! " As a last resource, it was decided to continue the open cutting on a level passing above the top of the tunnel, until the point directly above the largest spring was passed. A stout timber frame-work, some twenty feet long, (similar in construc¬ tion to the cribs used in deep-water foundations for masonry,) having the sides, and forward end planked, but open at the bottom, was then placed over the spring, and forced down into the fluid mass until it came to the bottom line of the tunnel. A plank flooring was next added to the crib, and a timber roof is now being constructed to make the finish of this portion of the " heading " correspond with the part which was really made by horizontal excavations. Having groped along thus far in the solution of the ugly problem, the next question seems to be how to remove the plank and timbers from the forward end of the crib, and yet stay the rush of " porridge " from all directions into the open¬ ing. When the crib was put in, the planks at the forward end were hard up against the rock. Since then it has been found by boring through this planking, that the rock has become " demoralized," and that there are three or four feet of " por¬ ridge " between the planks and the face of the rock. How to get that " porridge " out, nobody knows ; and how, in case they can dip out the " porridge " already formed, they can extend the crib forward, and make tight joints on the sides, top and bottom, against the rock that is yet hard, is a still more difficult problem ; and this accomplished, there remains the incalculably greater difficulty of keeping the face of the rock open for work without the rush of " porridge," which all experience has hitherto shown, will instantly form upon the exposure of the surface of the rock to air and water. Engineering resources may, and perhaps will, prove a match for the emergency; but common men, and some uncommon men, too, look upon these difficulties as insuperable. The prevailing opinion is that our State treasury is bottomless, and therefore that somehow or 8 other, in some time or other, if money enough is forthcoming, science, skill and perseverance will triumph. It will at once be asked, How far does this material extend ? About half a mile from the west face is the West Shaft. This shaft was sunk by Mr. Haupt, and he excavated some forty or fifty feet of tunnel in each direction. When the heading had advanced two hundred and eighty feet westerly, the workmen struck a material similar to that at the west face, accompanied as there with water. Finding the water increasing very nearly to the full capacity of the pump, and finding also the same tendency to " porridge," and confident that the water would speedily become greater than their means of pumping, and thus stop the work on the eastern face of the shaft, it was decided, as a matter of expediency, to discontinue the work on the west face in the shaft. Between this point and the west end of the tunnel, (that is, where the crib is,) the distance is twenty-three hundred feet! Artesian borings have been made at different points on the way, all showing the same material. These facts give the data of the problem. They have been nine mouths advancing one hundred and twenty-five feet under a bank some forty to sixty feet high ; and they have got along so far cnly by removing substantially the whole mass, and making an open cut. How long, at this rate, will it take to advance 2,300 feet, especially if they have to make an open cut running rapidly from sixty up to three hundred feet ? And what will it cost, either to tunnel that material, or to make an open cut, with slopes that will stand ? (See Appendix A.) The West Shaft. Twenty-three hundred feet from the present western " por¬ tal " Haupt had sunk a shaft to grade, and had driven the headings some fifty feet. The progress now made here, includ¬ ing work done by Haupt, is 260 feet east and 280 feet west. The work westward has been suspended, as previously stated. Eastward they are now advancing thirteen feet weekly. This hole is seven feet high and fourteen feet wide ! The work was commenced in April or May, 1861, and was suspended three months by the fire which destroyed the buildings and injured the machinery last winter. It thus appears that they have been actually at work over a year. Three sets of men work eight 9 hours each for six days iu the week. During these twelve months they have excavated 260 feet east and 280 feet west, less the work done by Haupt—say 240 feet on each face. This gives an average of a little less than twenty feet per month! It is, however, to be borne in mind, that the present boring is a mere gimlet-hole compared with the tunnel recommended as ultimately essential by the Commissioners. In their first report they say: " We would recommend the section of the tunnel to be nearly as originally designed—say 22 feet wide at the grade line, 24 feet wide at the widest point, 21 feet high above the track ; the roof to be circular." These dimensions give a sectional area of 433 square feet, and a solid measure of 16 cubic yards per lineal foot. The tunnel adopted by them is seven feet high and fourteen feet wide, giving an area of ninety- eight square feet, and three and two-thirds cubic yards per lineal foot. It seems, then, that the excavation actually done in the distance gone is as three and two-thirds to sixteen, or a little over one-fifth of what must be done to complete the tunnel of the size originally declared necessary by the Commissioners. Of course, it is intended to enlarge it, and I only refer to this in passing, to point attention to the small proportion, compared with the whole, of the work actually done. We shall examine this more carefully hereafter. The pump at the West Shaft throws fifty-one gallons of water per minute. This is near the full capacity of the pump, and the means of raising the water must be soon increased. If the difficulty of continuing the work on the west face in the West Shaft were one of water only, it might be obviated by increasing the capacity of the pumps ; but the difficulty is a far more seri¬ ous one, and that is, the tendency of the rock to " demoralize," or turn into " porridge." No pumps can remedy that, and any attempt at further progress here would in all probability be followed, not only by an indefinite increase of this " porridge," but a general caving in from above and all around, the same as at the west face, and speedily render all work in the shaft impossible. The Central Shaft Is about one and a half miles from the western portal, at a point where the surface of the mountain is 1,050 feet above the 10 grade of the tunnel. The shaft has been sunk 160 feet, leaving 890 feet yet to be sunk. During the last thirteen months they have gone down 100 feet; the last month they made 22 feet. The pumps give about a gallon and a half of water per minute. This quantity of water, as well as the amount stated at the West Shaft and west portal, is the amount in the present very dry season. The amount may be largely increased from November to June. Assuming that the work at the Central Shaft will hereafter average per month the highest figures yet reached in any month, 22 feet, it will require forty and a half months to reach grade. Until that time the work of tunnelling the mountain proper must be limited to two faces—one at the East end and one in the West Shaft. The machinery and all the appurte¬ nances at the Central Shaft are in excellent condition and the men work with spirit. At the East End, As is well known, the principal work on the tunnel had been done by Haupt. He had penetrated 2,394 feet to the end of the heading, of which about 2,100 feet was nominally com¬ pleted tunnel, of the size then contemplated, viz.: 14 feet wide and 18 feet high. I say nominally completed, for much of the way, Haupt, although paid in full, had made his burrow only 13 feet square, leaving from one to five feet of wet rock in the bottom. Beyond this the heading had been carried for¬ ward about 280 feet, with a height of a trifle over six feet. From the commencement of the work by the commissioners, in December, 1863 to April, 1865, no progress was made, except to cut down the bottom (left in the worst possible shape by Haupt,) so as to secure proper drainage. Since April, 1865, the heading has been pushed successfully, in the last two months averaging about 65 feet per month. The heading has now reached nearly 2,700 feet, some 200 and odd feet beyond the point reached by Haupt. The size of the bore is, according to my minutes, six and a half feet by ten! I may have mis¬ understood my informant, as I see no reason why a different size should have been adopted here from that in the West Shaft, which is seven by fourteen feet. Here, too, as at the 11 Central Shaft, the work, under the efficient superintendence of Mr. Hill, is being pushed with vigor and activity. Is one of the most extraordinary features of the enterprise. It was built for the purpose of creating water-power to drive machinery in the repair shops, to ventilate the tunnel, and to compress the air to drive the drills in case any can be found which will work. It is about three-quarters of a mile above the East end of the tunnel, is about 250 feet long, with a head, as the commissioners say in their report, of 20 feet, or as we were told on the ground, of 17 feet. This is immaterial, (except as affecting the question of cost,) inasmuch as the water is carried through a canal about half a mile to the building containing the water-wheels, where it gives a head of about 30 feet. The work is of the most thorough character, evidently " regardless of cost." The cost, up to September last, as stated in the report of Mr. Doane, chief engineer, was as follows, viz.:— How much more has been added to the cost during the year since last September, we have no means of knowing. We only know that the work has been going on all the time, and is not finished. It was admitted on the ground, by those who knew all about it, that it had cost $150,000; the general opinion is that it will have cost, completed, at least $200,000. Extravagant as these figures are, being, as I have no doubt, several times larger than was necessary to build a dam which * This contains nothing for buildings, water-wheels, machinery, &c., but simply the cost of getting the power to the water-wheels. The cost for those items would be about the same as it would be for their substitutes, if steam- power were used. The Dam Deerfield Dam, ..... Excavation and masonry East end of dam Wheel pits, Gates and overflow, .... Race, or canal, ..... . $92,343 00 3,453 00 4,707 00 837 00 16,497 00 Total to September, 1864,* . . $117,869 00 12 would stand for all time, it would appear but a trifle among the millions which this maelstrom is yet to swallow if prose¬ cuted to " the bitter end." I think I can show that the whole of it is absolutely thrown away I Power Required. The Commissioners in their report to the legislature last December (House Document No. 3,) say : " It is designed to use the water upon turbine wheels, one of which, of about one hundred horse-power, is already upon the ground. This will be put in operation upon air compressers, and its size and fitness tested before others are procured." It is thus admitted as a certainty that other turbine wheels of a hundred horse¬ power each will be needed. Again: " To carry forward the work with any degree of despatch or economy, it is apparent that three conditions are necessary ;—plenty of power, plenty of air, plenty of light." " Should early experience show it to be expedient, we design to lay pipes over the mountain to carry the compressed air from the water-power to the Central Shaft and West end working, that the whole work of drilling and ventilation may be executed by the pou-er of the Deerfield Dam. The loss of power by carrying the compressed air through five miles of pipe will be quite insignificant." As there are no data existing for testing the correctness of this last statement, we are at liberty to doubt whether air under a pres¬ sure of sixty pounds to the square inch, which amount the report elsewhere states to be necessary, can be carried through five miles of pipe without a very serious loss of power through friction, leakage, Ac. At any rate, other opinions, as oracu¬ larly pronounced by the chairman, have been proved to be utterly erroneous. Now with some experience in such matters, I can only say that I would prefer that such an experiment should be tried with somebody's money besides mine before I would risk much upon its success. But I forget. Mr. Brooks is to try the experiment with the State's money ; if it succeed, it is a feather in the cap of the Railroad King; if it fail, a million and a quarter of people divide the loss. Waiting, as we must, for the results of this experiment, I refer to it now only as one of the elements of the computation of the amount of power needed at the East end and expected 13 from the Deerfield River. Mr. Doane, in his report accom¬ panying that of the Commissioners, says:— " Inquiries were made in the autumn of 18G3, concerning the volume and regularity of the river. It was found that it would furnish, in a fall of thirty feet, all the power wanted for tunnel purposes, except for a week or two in the summer, and except for a month or two about every tenth summer. The summer of 1864 has proved to be the dry season expected once in ten years, and it is said that so dry a one has not been known by any person now living upon this part of the river. The volume was one day as low as fifty-six feet, running three feet per second." " After a thorough discussion of the comparative merits and cost of steam and water-power, taking into account the fact that the required power must be a continuous one, working through the twenty-four hours of every day, it was determined to build a dam in the Deerfield River which would furnish a power equal to about eight hundred horses." It would seem incredible that any man, even when spending other people's money, should enter upon an expenditure of the amount which this dam has cost, in a work which required absolutely continuous power for the whole twenty-four hours and for every day in the year, and for at least ten years, upon such loose evidence of the quantity of water in the river. No prudent business man would have built a factory requiring twenty horse-power upon the statements of " persons living upon this part of the river." " It is said that so dry a season (as last) has not been known, &c." This year these same persons say that this is the driest ever known. The fact is, as rain gauges show, that within the last forty years several seasons have occurred when less water fell than last year or this. The projectors of this folly relied upon the statements of these same people that this dry season occurred " every tenth summer," and therefore run for luck, believing, it would seem, that they should have nine years of abundance of water, and upon this visionary assumption they entered upon an expenditure of two hundred thousand dollars of our money; and, to show the utter fallacy of their reasoning, here comes another summer drier than their tenth summer of 18G4 f 2 14 Now what is the actual fact as to the power of this magnifi¬ cent Deerfield Dam? We were informed on the ground, by one who knew, that the last time the water was measured, it gave fifty horse-power! How long previously this measure¬ ment was taken, we could not ascertain. It was a tender point—indeed, it was the only one upon which our inquiries were not promptly and cheerfully answered—and we did not press the inquiry. At any rate, this measurement was taken some time before our visit, and the stream had been falling rapidly ever since. But taking this measurement as the minimum for the season, fifty horse-power is a very insignificant stream to put upon a turbine wheel of a hundred horse-power, let alone the " others" of the same size which were to follow. But small as this is, the stream, when we were there, furnished no such amount of power. "With an intimate acquaintance of over thirty years with water-power, I have no hesitation in saying, that judging from all the appearances and all the information we could gather, there was not then in the river, and had not been for some weeks and has not been since (unless they have had heavy rains,) water enough to give, under a thirty feet head, twenty, or even ten liorse-power for twenty-four hours a day. When we were there, the water was stopped entirely during the day, and let off at night, to accommodate the manu¬ facturers at Shelburne Falls, so that we did not see the steady natural run of the water; but I very much doubt if there was water enough running into the stream to fill the pond; in other words, whether the evaporation would not take off the water as fast as it ran in. Indeed, I " guessed " that the reason the water was let off in the night, was, that they feared if it was allowed to run over the shallow bed of the river under the hot sun, it would all evaporate before it reached Shelburne Falls! This, of course, is only conjecture; but be this as it may, it is discreditable that the precise quantity of the water has not, so far as we know, been ascertained by actual measurement. If the quantity is such as to warrant the finishing of the water works, very well; if not, they ought at once to be abandoned and steam-power substituted. There must be no risk about it, for this power furnishes the breath of life to the workmen in 15 the tunnel; if it fails an hour, the work must stop or the men must die. In an experience of over thirty years I have seen the most egregious blunders in placing mills upon streams without water during the summer months, but I never saw folly equal to this. It is bad enough for an ordinary manufacturing estab¬ lishment to be still for three to six months in the year, but this amounts at most only to the disturbance, greater or less as the case may be, resulting from the irregular production of the fabrics, and from the temporary loss of the operatives, and financially, to the loss of interest on the capital invested. The question of substituting steam as an auxiliary power would be purely one of expediency. But in the case of the tunnel, steam-power is an absolute necessity; and, as Mr. Doane states, that they considered it necessary to secure a water- power of eight hundred horses, then they will need steam- power of the same amount. There must be an expenditure for buildings, machinery and steam-power, just the same as if there had been nothing spent for water-power. Another element of this folly is this, that when the State shall have done with this power, that is, completed the tunnel (!!) nearly the whole first cost will be sunk. For a water privilege for manufacturing purposes on such a stream, ten thousand dollars would be an extravagant price. Assuming the dam to cost 1200,000, here will be a loss of $190,000. Mr. Brooks calculates that the completion of the tunnel will require from seven and a half to eight years " from the time it is vigorously undertaken." It is now two years since he com¬ menced the work. I suppose he will admit, or rather claim, that it was " vigorously undertaken " a year ago. Seven years then remain for its completion. This gives an average of a little over $27,000 annually chargeable to depreciation in the value of the dam. Here then is the annual cost of the water power:— Interest on cost of dam, ..... $12,000 00 Annual depreciation, ...... 27,000 00 Total cost for water-power reliable for six months only, ........ $39,000 00 16 Now, what would steam power cost? If the Commissioners at the outset had exercised the ordinary prudence and foresight of business men, they would have bought woodland enough to have furnished fuel for the whole eight years, and wood could have been had for but a trifle more than the bare cost of cut¬ ting and carting. Probably this land could be bought now at not a very large advance. A steam-engine of a hundred horse¬ power would consume in twenty-four hours, say ten cords of mixed wood such as grows on the line of the tunnel. At #3 per cord this would cost $30 per day of twenty-four hours for a hundred horse-power, or $9,000 for three hundred working days. We now have the data for comparison. The water- power costs $39,000 per year; it costs in addition for steam- power six months in the year, as above figured, $4,500 ; total, $43,500. Steam-power would cost $9,000 for the entire year. For each year there will be a loss of $34,500 on one hundred horse-power, and for ten years, an aggregate loss of $345,000. (See Appendix B.) Perhaps I have dwelt longer on this item than the small matter of a few hundred thousand dollars would warrant. But it impressed me strongly as an utterly inexplicable blunder. I had heard of the magnificent dam across the Deerfield Piiver, and I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw such a structure, with its extravagantly expensive appurtenances, thrown across a fitful mountain torrent. Its stupidity struck me more forci¬ bly, perhaps, from the fact that my life has been spent among mill privileges, and my bread and butter extorted from them ; but the examination will not be amiss if it suggests to others the lesson it taught me, viz.: that the man who could allow such a blunder is utterly unfit to direct the expenditure of ten or fifteen millions of the people's money. He expected to achieve immortality as the successful constructor of the Hoosac Tunnel; he will have to be content with going down to poster¬ ity as the projector of Brooks' Folly. Size of the Tunnel. Another of the inexplicable phenomena which the manage¬ ment of this enterprise presents is this: that whereas, as the Commissioners, in their first report, clearly showed, the tunnel excavated by Haupt was altogether too small, not only for the 17 ultimate purposes of traffic, but even for convenience, economy and safety while building, the Commissioners are working it with a section a trifle over one-third as large as Haupt's. At one end they are working upon a section of seven by fourteen feet, which is a trifle more than one-third of the size of Haupt's, while at the other, according to my minutes, they are working on a section of six and one-half' by ten feet, which is one-fourth the size of Haupt's. But Mr. Haupt commenced with a section inadmissably small, as Mr. Brooks unanswerably argued in his first report. After showing that the size adopted by the State under Haupt's management was too small, they say:— " It has been suggested that a small tunnel, not very unlike the mini¬ mum authorized by law, say fourteen feet wide and eighteen feet high, be first built and then enlarged, if found too small. If it was found decidedly too small, as we think it would be, its use would have to be dispensed with through the years of its enlargement. The interest upon its cost, through the period of its disuse, would largely swell the expense of the work. If it was found large enough to be used for a small traffic, with very infrequent trains, or in the best states of the atmosphere, it is apparent that it could not be used during its enlargement without involv¬ ing an additional cost, wholly disproportionate to the value of such partial use as was practicable. "If one train could not follow another without an hour of interval, neither could the men work in that interval, and they would lose the additional time of transit in and out, besides working indifferently in the bad atmosphere which would prevail nearly all the time. It is doubtless possible to enlarge and use it at the same time, in the view that almost anything in engineering is possible, with money and time enough ; but we regard the -plan as clearly out of the question in this case. " Beyond this we think it would not be creditable or desirable for the State of Massachusetts to construct the Hoosac Tunnel more than once." * * * * * * * "We would recommend the section of the tunnel to be nearly as originally designed, say twenty-two feet wide at the grade line, twenty- four feet wide at the widest point, twenty-one feet high above the track ; the roof to be circular." Of course we shall be now told that the section can be enlarged at any time ; but the whole drift of the above quoted argument is, that in every respect it is better to commence it of the size they mean to finish it. As it is, Massachusetts is 18 now constructing one-fifth of the Hoosac Tunnel; pray, when does Mr. Brooks propose to construct the other four-fifths ? Is it that it would be imprudent to let the people see the bills for completing the tunnel of full size until they so far " get their foot in it " that they will be less inclined to back out ? Or is it that Mr. Brooks himself regards the whole thing thus far as an experiment and is unwilling to spend money unnecessarily until some of the ugly problems are so far solved as to justify the " vigorous undertaking " of the work ? Who knows ? We must wait till the oracle speaks. Meantime the fact stands, that of the whole length, 24,586 feet, nominally 3,240 feet are exca¬ vated : of this about 2,170 feet were roughed out by Haupt and partly finished by the Commissioners, with a section fourteen by eighteen. Two hundred and eighty feet of heading was done by Haupt and about 800 by the Commissioners, making a total of 1,080 feet with a section of seven by fourteen, (allowing the whole to be as large as the largest.) Reducing it to actual measurement, the whole excavation in the mountain thus far amounts to 24,200 cubic yardsi The amount of additional excavation to complete the tunnel, as far as the heading is advanced, to the size required by the Commissioners, will be 17,800 cubic yai'ds. We have thus a little over one-half of the work done ; or, to put it in another form, instead of having 3,240 feet of completed tunnel, we have what is equivalent to 1,845 feet. That is, of the whole length, 24,586 feet, 1,845 feet are completed, or about one-fourteenth part of the whole. Pneumatic Drills. But whenever exception is taken to the slowness of the prog¬ ress, we are told: " Oh, wait till we get the pneumatic drills at work. Then you'll see the chips fly ! " Well, we have waited quite patiently. Nearly two years ago the money was sent abroad to purchase drills of the kind used at the Mont Cenis Tunnel; but though the money went, the drills did not come, and, it is understood, will not. One reason given for their not coming is, that the French engineers, or the Italian engineers, or some " cussed furriner," would not sell a drill to a Yankee ; another is, that the drills would not work in the Mont Cenis rock ; the third is, that though they might work in that rock, they would not in the Hoosac rock. The " dem'd total " is, 19 that the Mont Cenis drill calculation has gone to the tomb of the other " great expectations " which illustrate the history of the Hoosac Tunnel. In their first report the Commissioners handle the matter of machine-drills, or boring-machines, very gingerly. Haupt had failed, and they seemed to fear to rush hastily in where his genius had been foiled. But between that time and last Decem¬ ber they had acquired confidence. In their last report, Decem¬ ber 20th, 1864, they say : " Drilling-machines will not be likely to be in operation at this place (the East end,) before next midsummer." That is cautious and safe. Of the Central Shaft, they say : " We hope by the latter part of winter to get some automatic drills at work in the shaft, &c.,