He was strongly opposed to the project of a Channel tunnel to France, and in 1872 he endeavoured to obtain the consent of parliament to a Channel ferry scheme, whereby trains were to be transported across the strait in large ferry steamers.
He paid special attention to the question of the existence of coal in Kent, and in 1882 was selected by the Channel tunnel committee to make a special survey of the French and English coasts.
The project received royal assent in 1996 with the granting of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act.
The majority of these have been taken down to make way fir the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
This gray and relatively impermeable Chalk was the main tunneling horizon for the Channel Tunnel.
