British Caves and Speleology Author(S): E
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British Caves and Speleology Author(s): E. A. Martel Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 10, No. 5 (Nov., 1897), pp. 500-511 Published by: geographicalj Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1774383 Accessed: 26-06-2016 20:20 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Wiley, The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal This content downloaded from 137.99.31.134 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 20:20:38 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ( 500 ) BRITISH CAVES AND SPELEOLOGY. By E. A. MARTEL. AT the last meeting of the Sixth International Geographical Congress held in London, in July and August, 1895, I had the honour, as delegate of the Society of Speleology, of communicating a memorandum on the encouragement which ought to be given to researches of all kinds in caves. I explained how the new means of action employed since 1883, above all in Austria by different scientists and travellers, and in France by myself and my fellow-labourers, had resulted in un- expected discoveries. The principal aim of my communication was to attract the attention of English scientific men and tourists to all that still remains to be done and to be found in the natural caves of Great Britain. Alluding to the two works that I had already published,* I tried to prove how speleology, or the science of caves, if it received the attention which it deserves, will help to solve a great number of problems, not only in physical geography, but also in palaeontology, zoology, meteorology, agriculture, public works, general hygiene, etc. In order to join example to precept, I had obtained from the French Government, as I did in 1893 for the Austrian Karst, a scientific mission in the name of the Minister of Public Instruction to make a comparison between the grottoes and subterranean waters of Great Britain and those which I had already examined in France, Belgium, Austria, and Greece. The results of this mission, very fortunately accomplished in July and August, 1895, were abundant enough to furnish matter for a special new work, which was issued in January 1897 ; but, wishing to make known to the readers of the Geographical Journal at least the principal observations and discoveries which I have made in Ireland, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire, I will devote these few pages to a summary relation of my underground journey in the British Isles, adding after- wards a few words on my researches of 1896 in Spain. I hope thus to succeed in arousing in England a favourable extension of all kinds of subterranean researches, as I have already had the pleasure of succeeding in doing in France. I.-GENERAL REMARKS ON BRITISH CAVES. At the beginning of the present century, the caves of England were the object of learned and methodical researches. In 1821 Dr. Buckland undertook the famous excavations of Kirkdale cave, described in his classical work 'Reliquie Diluvianae.' One knows what splendid palaeontological discoveries have been furnished by the beds of Hutton, Oreston, Wookey, Victoria, Brixham caves, of Kent's hole, Dream mine, Goat hole (Paviland), etc. The summary of all this has been described by Prof. Boyd Dawkins in his excellent work ' Cave Hunting,' published in 1874.? The mere reading of this valuable volume will suffice to show that paleontology and archa3ology have been until now the principal objects of English speleologists. One may say that in general they have not thoroughly examined all that concerns the topography, the hydrology, the meteorology, and * 'Les Cevennes.' In 8vo. Paris: Delagrave. 1890. 'Les Abimes.' In 4to. Paris: Delagrave. 1894. t 'Irlande et Cavernes anglaises.' In 8vo. Paris: Delagrave. 1897. X In 4to. London: Murray. 1823. ? 'Cave Hunting: Researches on the Evidence of Caves, respecting the Early In- habitants of Europe.' In 8vo; xxiv., 455 pp.; one plate in colours and fig. London: MacMillan. 1874. This content downloaded from 137.99.31.134 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 20:20:38 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BRITISH CAVES AND SPELEOLOGY. 501 the zoology of their underground caves. On this last point they are very much behind their scientific brethren of Austria, America, and France, as, up to 1895, there was only one grotto in the British Isles-that of Mitchelstown, in Ireland-in which specimens of the fauna special to caverns had been met with. We cannot doubt that this is for want of sufficient researches. The opinion held by Prof. Boyd Dawkins in 1874, that the temperature of caves is in general (like that of springs) invariable, and equal "to the annual mean temperature of the place," was only really recognized as inexact since my own researches. I proved that it was also without foundation in England.* It is all the more singular to see the British caves thus incompletely studied, as every circumstance seems to favour a careful investigation; in effect, great stretches of tableland and hills are perforated with fissures into which the rainwater is engulfed, with caves which receive them, and sources which distribute them. These regions are very easy of access; they are neither lost in the heart of high mountains, nor far from roads and great centres, as those into which the swallow-holes of the French causses open. The 1: 10,560 county map, or 6-inch map, facilitates in a very great measure, and better than in any other country, the knowledge of the land. And the nation which has created the dangerous sport of alpine climbing and founded the first alpine club is far from wanting in initiative and fearlessness. Also we can hardly understand why the courageous Messrs. Lloyd, Birkbeck, and Metcalfe, who, as far back as 1770 and 1847, did not fear to descend into Eldon hole and Allum pot-two abysses of 300 feet deep (of which 180 are perpendicular), have not had more imitators. In short, the underground of the calcareous regions of the British Isles may be considered as being, topographically, very little known; this is the conviction which was impressed on my mind by my own researches in 1895. II.-MARBLE ARCH (IRELAND). Dr. Scharff, of the Irish Museum of Science and Art at Dublin, procured me the co-operation of Mr. Jameson for the exploration of some of the Irish grottoes. His help has been most valuable to me in exploring the caves near Enniskillen (Fermanagh). Marble Arch, which is certainly the most important of all these cavities, is situated 10 miles (as the crow flies) south-west of Enniskillen, at the entrance to the park of the Earl of Enniskillen. The Cladagh (219 feet), a foaming torrent rushing out of a charming woody ravine, narrow and walled in between abrupt slopes for a height of 150 to 250 feet. After a mile's walk up the ravine, we come to a natural arcade of stone, a calcareous layer which has remained stationary, and under which the entire torrent leaps, raging through the stones with which the bed is strewn. The map (sheet 56, Swanlinbar) indicates, at half a mile, two-thirds of a mile, and a mile, south and south-east of Marble Arch, three rivers (Sruh Croppa, Monastir or Owenbrean; the third has no name), which here, running under the rocks, drain the northern turfy slopes of Cuilcagh (2188 feet), and disappear suddenly into three holes, Cat's hole, Pollawaddy, Pollasumera. On July 16, 1895, I undertook, with Mr. Jameson, to find out the quite unknown underground relations between the three rivers and the source. It is difficult to imagine a subterranean arrangement more complicated than at Marble Arch. Three storeys are here superposed: (1) the channels of the subterranean * Comptes Rendus of the Academy of Sciences, Paris, March 12, 1894; January 13, 1896; May 24 and June 14, 1897. This content downloaded from 137.99.31.134 on Sun, 26 Jun 2016 20:20:38 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 502 BRITISH CAVES AND SPELEOLOGY. river; (2) three galleries, perforated at about 16 feet above the water which circu- lated there formerly, and which perhaps passes there still when there are inun- dations; (3) four openings caused by the falling in of the tableland between 30 and 80 feet higher up. But it is impossible to meet with a more striking example of the destructive powers of subterranean waters. Erosion, corrosion, and hydrostatic pressure have, by widening the natural fissures of the ground, formed a real sponge of stone, about 500 feet long by 200 feet wide. Under the continual action of the internal current, the rock has become, in some way, more and more carious, like a bad tooth. At the points the most attacked, the hollowing out has reached such a development that the overweighing mass fell in, thus producing the four funnels. In short, the formation by the falling in of ground, due to the sapping of a subterranean river, is nowhere, not even at St. Canzian-in-Wald, near Adelsberg,* more evident and more eloquent than here; and the partisans of the theory which attributes the origin of natural wells principally to this cause, will find at Marble Arch one of the best arguments in favour of their thesis.