ENGLISH CHANNEL

(Fr. La Manche, the sleeve), the arm of the sea which separates England from France, extending, on the Wnglish side, from Dover to Land’s End; and en the French, from Calais to the Island of Ushant. On the east it communicates with che North Sea by the Straits of Dover, 21 miles wide; and on the west it opens into the Atlantic by an entrance about 100 miles wide. At its greatest breadth it ig about 150 miles. The pilchard and mackerel fisheries are very important. The advantages of a railway tunnel under the Channel at or near its narrowest part have been frequently urged; and an Bnglish company, formed in 1887 for constructing a tunnel from Dover, to meet a similar tunnel starting from near Calais, pushed an excavation under the sea for over 2,000 yards. The plan has been much discu ed, but whether it will ever come to anything is a matter of great uncertainty. Plans have also been put > forward for a railway bridge acro the Straits of Dover.