has, however, since been resumed under favorable auspices, and at the present time the Tunnel is about completed. The average cost of the Thames Tunnel does not exceed £6 3s. 9d. per cubic yard of the ground removed, including the structure, which contains nine hundred and sixty rods of brickwork. The average cost of the drift-way is £16 10s. per cubic yard, with no more than seven rods of brickwork. Watchmaking in Swtizerland. The following details are given in an abridged form from a "Report on the Commerce and Manufactures of Switzerland," by Dr. Bowring, recently laid before Parliament. A large portion of the facts were furnished to Dr. Bowring by M. Houriet, an intelligent manufacturer, who, in his communication, dated January, 1836, asks for indulgence on the plea that he is neither “ a learned man nor a writer," and yet, says Dr. Bowring, "a more interesting and instructive document has seldom, I believe, been furnished." One of the largest and most interesting branches of Swiss industry is the watchmaking trade. It is carried on to an immense and still increasing extent in the mountainous districts of Neuchatel, in the French portion of the Canton of Berne, and in the town and neighborhood of Geneva. It has been a source of wealth and comfort to many thousands of the inhabitants, who, in the seldomvisited villages of the Jura, have gathered around them a large por. tion of the enjoyments of life. Switzerland has long furnished the markets of France; and though the names of certain French watchmakers have obtained a European celebrity, yet Dr. Bowring was informed by M. Arago that an examination into this trade had elicited the fact that not ten watches were made in Paris in the course of a year, the immense consumption of France being furnished from Switzerland, and the Swiss works being only examined and rectified by the French manufacturers. The contraband trade into France was immense, and no custom-house regulations could stop the introduction of articles so costly and so little bulky. They are now admitted into France at six per cent. for gold, and ten per cent. for silver watches, and a considerable quantity pays this moderate duty. The Jura mountains have been the cradle of much celebrity in the mechanical arts, particularly in those more exquisite productions of which a minute complication is the peculiar character. During the winter, which lasts from six to seven months, the inhabitants are, as it were, imprisoned in their dwellings, and occupied in those works which require the utmost development of skilful ingenuity. Nearly one hundred and twenty thousand watches are produced annually in the elevated regions of Neuchatel. In Switzerland the most remarkable of the French watchmakers, and among them one who has lately obtained the gold medal at Paris for his beautiful watch-movements, had their birth and education; and a sort of honorable distinction attaches to the watchmaking trade. The horologers consider themselves as belonging to a nobler profession than ordinary mechanics, and do not willingly allow their children to marry into what they consider the inferior classes. The art or trade of clockmaking was introduced into the mountains of Neuchatel in a manner worthy of notice. As early as the seventeenth century some workmen had constructed clocks with weights, but no idea had been conceived of making clocks with springs. About the end of that century, an inhabitant of the moun. tains, returning from a long voyage, brought with him a watch, which was an object previously unknown in the country. It was put into the hands of a skilful workman to be repaired, who succeeded in doing so, and then tried to make a similar article. He succeeded in effecting this also, notwithstanding the difficulties which lay in his way, he having to construct the tools with which he wrought, as well as all the different movements of the watch. His success naturally created a great sensation; other workmen were stimulated to try what they could do, and a new branch of industry sprung up in the mountains of Neuchatel. During the first forty or fifty years a few workmen only were employed in watchmaking; and owing to the numberless difficulties they had to surmount, to the slowness of execution caused by the absence of convenient tools, the want of proper materials, &c., the productions and profits were inconsiderable. They began at length to procure the articles of which they stood in need from Geneva, and afterwards from England; but the high prices which these articles cost induced many of the workmen to attempt to provide them for themselves. They not only thus succeeded in rivalling foreign tools, but they eventually made many superior ones till then unknown. From that period they have constantly invented other instruments in order to facilitate and perfect the art of watchmaking; and at the present moment the manufacture of watchmaking tools and appur. tenances is become a branch of industry of so much importance, as to enable the inhabitants to supply them to those countries from whence they formerly imported them. It is not more than eighty or ninety years since a few merchants began to collect together small parcels of watches, in order to sell them in foreign markets. The success which attended these speculations induced and encouraged the population to devote themselves still more to the production of articles of ready sale; so much so, that nearly the entire inhabitants have embraced the watchmaking trade. The population has increased threefold, independently of the great number of workmen who are established in almost all the towns of Europe, in the United States of America, and even in the East Indies and China. From this period a great change has taken place in the country of Neuchatel, where, notwithstanding the barrenness of the soil and the severity of the climate, beautiful and well-built villages are everywhere to be seen, connected by easy communications, together with a very considerable and industrious population, in the enjoyment, if not of great fortunes, at least of a happy and easy independence. "If our watches," says M. Houriet, "have attained a certain reputation of superiority, it is in a great measure to be attributed to the independence of our workmen, and to the advantage which they have derived from a careful and studied execution of the several articles intrusted to their respective and particular talents. Indeed, on the one hand, each artisan working at home, and for whomsoever pays him the best price, and on the other, the merchant having an interest to encourage by paying the best prices to those who furnish him with the best materials and work, a kind of emulation is naturally excited among the workmen to obtain a preference and an advantage. Perhaps, also, the spirit which is generally diffused among the inhabitants of mountainous countries, added to the habits and customs of our workmen, who are at the same time landed proprietors, has not a little contributed to this development of talent amongst our population. Living simply, and in the bosom of their families, occupied entirely (with the exception of a few slight agricultural cares) in the labors of their art, and not being exposed to those temptations which exist in and cor. rupt large societies, it is very natural that they should be more assiduous and more desirous of attaining perfection in their art; and the more so still, as they derive a greater benefit from it, their reputation and their interest are equally engaged. "The present condition of this branch of industry is extremely prosperous, and it is with great difficulty that we can succeed in executing all the orders which we receive. "As to the probable fate of this trade, it is even permitted to hope, and with much probability, that it is yet susceptible of extension. A watch is no longer, as it was formerly, an object of luxury, destined exclusively for the rich; it has become an article of the first necessity for every class in society: and as, together with the |