But the grandest application of gunpowder and the voltaic battery to the blasting of rocks, was made in the month of January, 1843, at Dover. It was determined by these means to attempt the removal of an enormous mass of the cliff facing the sea, which formed an obstruction to the line of railroad. A portion of the cliff which was penetrated by the tunnel made through Shakspeare’s Cliff gave way, about two years previously. About fifty yards of the tunnel were carried away, and a clear space was thus formed for the line of railroad, with the exception of a projecting point, which, prior to the slip alluded to, was the extremity of the part of the cliff pierced by the tunnel, and to remove which was the object of the operation in question. To clear away this mass by the tedious process of manual labour, would have cost above twelve thousand pounds; and this consideration, as well as the time that would have been lost, induced Mr. Cubitt, the engineer, to try the bold expedient of blowing it away with gunpowder. “It cannot be denied,” remarks Captain Stuart, whose account of this great engineering operation we follow, “that there was apparent danger in the undertaking, for the weight of the mass to be removed was estimated at two million tons, and the quantity of powder used was more than eight tons, or eighteen thousand pounds. The quantity used in blowing up the fortifications of Bhurtpore was twelve thousand pounds, and this is said to have been the greatest explosion that had ever previously taken place for any single specific object.” The front of the projection was about one hundred yards wide; this front was pierced with a tunnel about six feet in height, and three in breadth; three shafts, equidistant from each other, and from the entrances to the tunnel, were sunk to the depth of seventeen feet, and galleries were run, one from each shaft, parallel with each other, and at right angles with the line of the tunnel. These galleries varied in length, the longest having been twenty-six feet, and the shortest twelve feet, and at their extremities chambers were excavated in a direction parallel with the tunnel. This description will be the better understood by reference to the following figure. 1. The tunnel. 2. The shafts. 3. The galleries. 4. The chambers. [Illustration]