Number 4 BULLETIN ·OF THE NATIONAL SPELEOLOGICAL SOCIETY his· Issue: SPECIAL ARTICLES PAGES 7 to 77 SPECIAL TRIPS PAGES 72 ·to 29 CAVE .FAUNA PAGES 77 to 72 PRESIDENT'S COMMENTS PAGES 29 to 34 LOG OF THE SOCIETY PAGES 53 to 57 COMMERCIAL CAVES PAGES 58 to 63 KUBLA KHAN In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A .tately pJeuure.dome decree: Where Alph, the .acred riYer, ran, Through cavern. mea.urele •• to man, Down to a aunle.. .ea. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge SEPTEMBER, 1942 hington, D. C. 501 per copy Bulletin of the IATIONAL SPELEOL0811AL SOCIETY Issue No.4; 500 copies; 64 pages. September, 1942 Published sporadically by THE NATIONAL SPELEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 510 Star Building, Washington, D. C., at 50c per copy. Copyright, 1942, by THE NATIONAL SPELEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. EDITOR: Don Bloch, 5606 Sonoma Road, Bethesda, Md. ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Robert Bray, Hern-. don, Va. - William J. Stephenson, 4912 43rd Place, Washington, D. C. N. S. S. COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN (See By-Laws, VI) Bibliography & Library, Robert Bray, R. D. 2, Herndon, Va.; Bulletin & Publications, Don Bloch, 5606 Sonoma Road, Bethesda, Md,.; Equip­ ment & Safety, Jean Williams, 3718 42nd St., Seattle, Washington; Ex­ ploration & Location, Erwin Bischoff, 367 33rd St., Oakland, ' California;' Fauna, James Fowler,, 6420 14 th St. N. W., Washington D. C.; Finance, LeRoy Foote, R. D. 3, Waterbury, Conn.; General Geology, Dr. Paul Price, Geol. Surv., Morgantown, W. Va.; Hydrology, Dr. R. W. Stone, Geol. Surv" Harrisburg, Pa.; Individual Caves, vacant. Abolished, and re­ placed by Commercial & Developed Caves, J. S. ' Petrie, 400 S. Gleb~ Road, Arlington, Va.; Matps & Mapping, W.· J. Stephenson, 7108 Pros­ pect Ave., Richmond, Va.; Membership, Dr. Wm. Welsh, Rockville, Md.; Paleontology, Dr. R. S. Bassler, Nat. Museum, Washington, D. C.; Photo­ graphy, John l\iennehan, 1222 Euclid St., N. W., Washington, D. C.; Program & Activities, Dr. James Benn, Nat. Museum, Washington, D. C.; Publicity, Lou Klewer, Toledo Blade, Toledo, Ohio (acting, for Jack Preble) ; Records, Miss Florence Whitley, 1630 R St., N. W., Wash., D. C. BULLETIN NO.4 of the NATIONAL SPELEOLOGICAL ·SOCIETY and forty feet below the present floor· If it were not for these cave deposits, much of man's early history SPECIAL ARTICLES ••• would be lost along with a knowledge of man's pre­ historic physical structure· THE CAVE Neanderthal Man The Ne'anderthal Man, skeletal portions of which were discovered in 1856 by workmen clearing a small They help tell the story of the earth, upon cave in the Neander Valley not far from Dusseldorf, which man lives and in which he digs. Germany, is quite familiar to many - of us; but "not By J. H. BENN, U. S. National Museum quite so familiar perhaps is the discovery of the Rhod­ esian-man in 1921. Workmen, while engaged in the We earthly beings who place ourselves highest among Broken Hill Mine, Rhodesia, Airica, cut into a cave the known animate creatures because of our mental containing fossilized remains of animals; among them ability for observation, reasoning and conclusions, look were found human bones and a skull which' is said to out into the universe and find that our 'own world is have a more modern brain-case than the Neanderthal Man. A still more recent discovery of fossil human an insignificant unit in a great cosmos of many uni­ remains in case deposits are those of Choukoutian, in verses. In looking back to earth, we see her as a com­ the hills east of the Mongolian Plateau, thirty-seven parative universe with" many lesser worlds contained miles south-west of Peking. therein. All of these lesser worlds, though related, The original discovery was made in 1923 and con­ function as complete units of environment for the sisted of a single well preserved human left molar creatures that exist there· Such a world and such a tooth; since that time the skulls and bones of twenty­ unit of environment is the cake; a world related to four individuals have been found. The deposits con­ any yet so different from the world to which we are sist of mud, bones and rock-talus cemented together accustomed· by travertine and forming a breccia which fills a fissure Frequently, this world within a world has but a in a hill of Ordovician limestone. From evidence ob­ single passage connecting it with the sky and the air tained from the fossil fauna, the age of the depOSIt. above the earth. Along this passage, there is a rapid is considered to be low in the Pleistocene. change from external to internal conditions, an en­ In our own Western Hemisphere, human remains vironment of dimming light through which all creatures found in caves have not been regarded as of great must pass to reach the complete black-out within. Then geological antiquity. However, great numbers of both there are other caves which have no openings leading fossil and recent animal remains have been found in to the outside world and in which no animated move­ natural pitfalls of caves. Such for instance was the ment has ever been known; the only motion being that Pleistocene cave deposits of Cumberland, Maryland, of earth movement, running water or crystal growth. where the bones of peccary, cave-bear, vnld dog, wolv­ These two conditions resemble environments of the out­ erine and many other animals were all found in intri­ side universe in that some planets are capable of sup­ cate mass· Likewise, a cave on Charles Island in the porting life and others are not. Galapagos Archipielago, operated for centuries in cap­ Since the awakening of man's ;ntelligence, caves turing the giant land tortoise· have been of intense interest to him. They were his In America the exploration and study of caves has first form of semi-permanent home, giving him shelter progressed slowly as compared to the work carried on from the elements and protection from the wild beasts. in other parts of the W orId. Yet right here on ow: To acquire and hold this dwelling, early man had to own doorstep" we have opportunities for cave work ex­ fight the cave lion, the cave bear and many other celled in no other place. What we lack in deposits creatures, with occasional weapons of clubs and stones. of early man we possess in every other way, namely: Because of his inherent fear of darkness, and having cave fossils, cave life, subterranian lakes and streams, only poor made torches for illuminating the far re­ dry caves, wet 'caves, any number of caves both large cesses, it is not likely that the cave-man explored deep­ and small; and above and beyond this we have the op­ ly into caverns. portunity to study the origin and formation of caves E.xplorers digging in some caves of · the Eastern in all stages. of developme_nt. Hemisphere today find stone implements, along with The student of geology, ' -whether he be amateur the bones ' of animals used for food, buried thirty or professional,. i~ greatly interested in the origin of cav<: s a nd their v:,uious t ypes. These types .. vary ac­ hurled and pounded against the coast-line. if, as in cording to the material at hand and the agencies active the case of the shore-line cave of Nova Scotia, cre­ in their f ormation. The material may be hard, soft, vices or veins of softer material penetrate the rock, insolu ble or soluble; the agencies may be physicei, the work of cave f ormation goes on at an even greateJ' mechanical, chemical or a combination of all three. rate. These caves which are worked in horizontally Among the various types of caves there is a vast and are never of tremendous length are some of those range of difference extending from the lava caves of found in limestone further inland. Where coast-line.. many volcanic regions on one hand, to the glacial have sunken, shore-line caves become marine-caves and por ting life and others are not. serve as shelters for the creatures of the sea: In the former, the overflowing molten mass cools In discussing the origin of limestone' ca.ves, t.he comp ar~tively quickly at the surface into hard rock first consideration to be touched upon is the passage of and allows the still hot liquid inn'el' portion to run surface waters to undergound waters, F'l.-om the sur­ away. The heat retained in the cavernous area thus face, water descends through the Earth's crust by gra­ formed is sufficient to produce long stalactites from vity, filling all crevices, fissures, and also the pores of the dripping ceiling and to cover the floor with splat­ solid rocks. The lowest point t o which it may descend ter stone· An example of such an origin is that of a is determined by the Earth's interior heat. The lowe ~t lava cave on the slope of Mauna Loa, Hawaii; here point of , outward discharge is limited to a level not twisted columns and stalactitic forms, as well as gro­ much below that of the ocean's surface. Therefo)"E', tesque shapes of splatter stone, may be seen hardened cave formation takes place above these limits. into basalt rock This type of cave may be classed as Not only the rains take a downward course'through physical-the rock was hot and molten and upon cool­ the rocks between their sloping layers and along fis­ ,ing, the cave, such as just described, was formed. sures, but rivers and lakes furnish a permanent water On the other hand, caves and grottos formed be­ supply as well.