Work continued incessantly day and night; but it was hard and exhausting the farther the men advanced. The drills scarcely could bite into the rock, as it was so tough. At one time the question became so acute that the engineers brought up the electric drills used in the Karawanken undertaking in order to see if matters could not be expedited, but they failed to make as much headway as the hydraulic tools. Another handicapping factor was the heat, which rose very rapidly, and although it did not attain that degree experienced in the boring of the Simplon, yet it caused considerable fatigue among the workmen engaged in such a confined space. The elaborate ventilating system sufficed to keep the air as sweet and cool as possible, but it did not solve the problem completely. The workmen, cramped as they were in the confined space--the area available for manipulating the tools only measured a few feet in each direction--often betrayed painful signs of physical distress. But at last there was a wild cheer, which echoed and re-echoed through the caverns to the tunnel’s mouths. Those outside realised that something untoward had occurred, and in a few seconds the news came through the gloomy depths that the drills had pierced the last 72 inches of rock separating the two headings, and that the Tauern was conquered. That was on July 21, 1907, some five years after the first boulder was torn from the mountain-side. Once this last barrier was broken down the finishing touches were soon applied, and the double track laid from end to end. Though the Tauern tunnel constitutes the outstanding features on the section stretching from Schwarzach St. Veit to Villach, there are innumerable other subsidiary works which in themselves are of importance. One of more than passing interest is a clever piece of construction in order to overcome a difference of 2,975 feet in level between the Tauern tunnel and Ober Villach by means of a huge “S” loop four and a half miles in length. The fulfilment of this undertaking constitutes one of the most remarkable railway engineering feats in Europe. Certainly it ranks among the most expensive enterprises that ever have been attempted west of the Urals. To the travelling and commercial community its value is incalculable, for Munich, which was formerly a tedious journey of twenty-three hours from Trieste, is now within twelve hours’ run, while the other great centres of Europe have been brought proportionately nearer the Adriatic by this new and more direct route. CHAPTER VIII THE RECLAMATION OF ALASKA