In the cataract section, at Jucz, a channel two hundred feet wide, and
more than half a mile long, is to be blasted out of the rock, and a
breakwater built, to moderate the suddenness of the fall. This
breakwater is to be about two miles long, and ten feet thick at the
top, increasing in thickness toward the bottom. The rock in which the
channel must be cut at this point is partly serpentine greenstone,
partly chrome iron ore, and is intensely hard. In the section of the
Iron Gate, the work to be done consists in "canalizing" the river for
a distance of a mile and a half, by building a wall on each side, and
excavating the bed of the river between. The channel between the walls
will be two hundred and fifty feet wide. It is estimated that nearly
three million cubic feet of rock will have to be excavated here, all
of which will be used to fill in behind the embankment walls. Of
course, the greater part of the rock will be removed by means of
blasting with high explosives, but some of it is to be attacked with a
novel instrument, which was first tried, on a small scale, on the
Panama Canal, and is to be used for serious work here. This
instrument, as it is to be employed on the Danube, consists of an
enormous steel drill, thirty-three feet long, and weighing ten tons.
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