reakfast, we commenced our return
journey to Geschenen; the driver, after leaving the tunnel and the
snowdrifts, tearing down the defile at a most dangerous pace. At the
station we took fresh tickets to Lugano, travelling third-class to make
up for the extravagance of abandoning our former tickets, and then
waited for the train which was to take us to Italy. Yes, to Italy, that
wonderful country of which we had read so much, about which we had
acquired so much information, and had been so longing to see for the
last six months! The train, with its huge powerful engine, came slowly
into the station, looking very important, as if it knew that it was
conveying its passengers to the most famous country the world has ever
seen.

The entrance to the great tunnel is within a few yards of Geschenen
Station. When we consider that this is the longest tunnel in the world
(from Geschenen to Airolo, nearly nine and a half miles), and that the
rock which is pierced consists of such hard material as quartz and
granitic gneiss, the work may well claim to be one of the great
engineering feats of the century. The difficulty of supplying the
workmen engaged on the boring of the tunnel with air, necessitated the
building of huge air reservoirs (just outside Geschenen Station), which,
in addition, were used for setting the boring machines into motion. The
air was forced into these reservoirs by water supplied from the Reuss.
The operations were commenced at both ends in 1872, under the auspices
of M. Louis Favre. This great contractor, to whose industry and genius
so much of the final success of the scheme was due, died of apoplexy
whilst inspecting the tunnel, after seven years of unremitting labour
and anxiety. The difficulties which poor Favre had to contend against
were terrible, not the least of which were the crushing of the masonry,
the striking of springs, and a riot among the workmen, which took place
in 1875.

We were a little disappointed with the length of the tunnel, especially
as we had heard that the boring alone had taken nearly eight years to
accomplish. But travelling through a tunnel is not a very agreeable
sensation, as passengers by the Underground Railway will know, so we
were glad when the train emerged from the darkness and slowly wended its
way past Airolo, the first Italian village on the south side of the St.
Gothard. The scenery changes its character almost immediately on leaving
the tunnel; for though it is st