THE GREAT GORGE OF CHEDDAR.
Photo by Dawkes & Partridge, Wells.
This is considerably larger than the other two great outlets of the subterranean waters of Mendip, those of Wookey Hole and Wells, each of which, however, pours forth an enormous volume. That it is the Cheddar stream which is responsible for the existence of the gorge itself no one can doubt, and it is a most interesting subject for discussion as to how this has been brought about. It is not difficult to determine what points must mark the boundaries of the catchment area, the waters of which drain to Cheddar. The road from Castle Comfort to Charterhouse on the north-east, the outcrop of Shales south of Blackdown on the north, and a line drawn from Rowberrow Farm north of Priddy to the gorge itself on the south, enclose the whole area from which the supply is obtained. This is somewhere about 12 square miles in extent. To this must be added, possibly, some water from slightly more to the eastward. It is now the commonly accepted theory that the whole of this water, or at any rate the bulk of it, found inlet into a series of caverns along the line now occupied by the gorge, and that then the processes which are so well known to be going on gradually enlarged these to the point of collapse, the falling débris being removed by the still flowing stream. It is only right to add that M. Martel, arguing from his long experience, which probably exceeds that of any man who has ever studied the subject, sees in the gorges of Cheddar, Burrington, and presumably Ebbor, the superficial channels worn by the escaping streams from the ancient Mendip plateau. He says, "The numerous dried valleys (Burrington Combe, Cheddar Cliffs, etc.), which cut through the circumference of the Mendips, witness, as everywhere, to the ancient superficial flowing off of the rivers, and to their capture by the natural wells, successively opened and enlarged in the cracks of the Limestone rock." That even small streams acting through a sufficient period of time are capable of doing enormous erosive work it would be idle to deny, but the difficulties in the way of accepting this theory as alone sufficient are too great to admit of its acceptance. It demands that the water of a very large area could find access to the eastern end of the ravine, which itself demands that the general configuration of the Mendips must have been very different from that presented now. This, from the existence of the Secondary beds in their present position, say near Harptree, was not the case; and therefore, for the theory to hold good, we must suppose that the superficial gorge was pre-Triassic. As it was not filled in, either in Triassic time or subsequently, it could not have been superficial. Of course it may be contended that the reversal of this line of argument demonstrates that the gorge is post-Liassic and may then have been a superficial channel, but I hold this to be disproved in my chapter on the antiquity of the Mendip Caves. I am, accordingly, forced to the conclusion that the Cheddar gorge was during the whole of the Secondary period a roofed-in cavern. The only difficulty which arises is a doubt as to the ability of the stream to remove so vast a bulk of falling material as must be accounted for; but when we see the process in actual operation, as at Wookey Hole, it is only necessary to demand sufficient time, and the difficulty vanishes. That a time did arrive when the rate of collapse more than kept pace with the destructive energy of the stream is indicated by the rapid rise which takes place in the road through the gorge. This favours the cave theory as opposed to the superficial channel theory, inasmuch as a superficial channel would probably have maintained a more nearly equal depth throughout.
That the portion of M. Martel's theory which explains the absence of the stream from the gorge is correct is very clear, there being obvious indications, notably at the western end of the ravine, where points of absorption might be traced beneath the high cliffs, any one of which, if excavated, would almost certainly lead to the present channel of the river beyond Gough's Caves. The Long Hole above, as pointed out in my chapter upon the antiquity of the Mendip Caves, is corroborative evidence which tends to disprove the superficial valley theory, as it is without a doubt an old cavern of absorption, which could not have existed had the ravine been a superficial valley. Everyone must lament the recent developments in the Cheddar gorge by which the northern side is being hacked to pieces to provide road metal. There are thousands of places where the same stone could be obtained, with almost equal ease; and it does seem pitiful that one of the finest places in the kingdom should be sacrificed to the most callous and sordid commercialism. The conditions under which the work is being carried on constitute also a public danger, as has now been exemplified by the collapse into the gorge of a huge mass of the rock. The dip of the Limestone is to the southward, and consequently any work done on the northern side is removing the support that holds up the great mass upon an inclined plane. Of necessity the mass above, its support gone, comes hurtling down to the roadway, and it is practically certain that, if quarrying operations continue, some day the gorge will be entirely closed by a gigantic fall.
An interesting little tributary ravine and cavern, far up the gorge, provides a perfect example of the cave theory of the formation of the gorge itself. About two miles from the village, on the southern slopes of the ravine, is an extensive fir wood. High up on the opposite side this little ravine is visible, and it may be reached with ease. Here sides that gently slope give way to precipitous walls, between which you walk. Moss-grown stones give place to new-fallen stones, and then you have before you the little ravine roofed in; you pass beneath, and find yourself in the darkness of the cavern itself, which can be followed for some distance. Here, at any rate, there can be no doubt as to the process that has been at work.
H. E. B.
When we consider the question of the age of our caverns, we are met at the outset by a mass of evidence forcing upon us the certainty that they must be credited with a very high antiquity indeed. Here measurement by years and centuries fails, and the imagination must be called in to aid us to compute the epochs that have successively elapsed since the first cave, to take one example, began to be formed at Wookey Hole. These evidences are of three kinds: historical, palæontological, and geological. In the first place, there has been obviously little change in the general configuration of our caverns since earliest historical times. The dens and caves of the earth have afforded a retreat to the persecuted of all generations, and a ready-made home when all else has failed. Here, too, with the rocky walls behind him and his protecting fires at the entrance, early man could defy the savage beasts that roamed the land in those far-off days.
At Wookey Hole it was only necessary to scratch the very surface of the accumulated débris within the mouth of the great cave to turn up fragments of Romano-British pottery and a human jaw and rib-bones. These interesting relics are in the possession of myself and Mr. Troup. From the very nature of the place, it is obvious that the tendency has been to accumulate more and more débris upon the mass of cave earth which contains these remains. Slightly deeper, yet still only in the loose earth of the cavern mouth, we found pottery of still earlier date, unwheeled and cruder. The fact is borne in upon us, that certainly for two thousand years this entrance has remained much as it is now. Perhaps a loose rock here and there has been dislodged from the overhanging cliff outside, and, crashing to the stream bed below, has there been broken up and carried away by the river. But no one can doubt that the general outline is the same now as then. And farther within the cavern an interesting sidelight is thrown on the slowness with which things change in the underworld. At the descent into the first great chamber a chalk inscription roughly made reads "E A 1769." That inscription has been there unchanged, to my knowledge, for the last twenty years, and I have no reason to doubt its authenticity. If a chalk mark remains unerased for a century and more, how long have those solid walls stood, and how long will they endure?
As I have gazed upon that inscription, the thought has come, that such a place as this would be an ideal site for national monuments. When our abbeys and cathedrals are crumbled away, these great subterranean halls will remain practically unchanged. And in the caves of Cheddar like evidences meet the eye. In the loose material in the Roman cave there, Roman and Romano-British remains have been found in abundance; and here again we are forced to the conclusion that no change has taken place since those remains were deposited.
But when we consider the evidences furnished by the remains of the extinct mammalia, mingled with those of primitive man, much more is it impressed upon the mind that we are dealing with relics of enormous antiquity. The great assemblage of bones of the extinct animals which occurs at Banwell Cave, and the numberless finds from the caves of Cheddar, are indications of this; but those of the Hyæna Den of Wookey Hole, and the conditions of their deposit there, afford us much more reliable testimony. Here are two principal cavities on the eastern side of the ravine, representing two of the five river levels which the stream of the Axe has hollowed for itself in the Dolomitic Conglomerate. These are branch or side chambers which have not been totally destroyed in the process of erosion that formed the ravine at the expense of the cavern. In the uppermost cavity, known as the Badger Hole (it was the haunt of badgers until a few years ago), no traces of the extinct mammalia are to be found, nor have I found definite traces of prehistoric man. At seven feet below the surface, however, there is a bed of river sand of precisely the same kind as that in the upper chambers of the great cavern. In the Hyæna Den below, on the other hand, so thoroughly and systematically explored by Professor Boyd Dawkins, was found one of the most perfect assemblages of the remains of extinct animals ever discovered. Many years after his labours were completed I searched there again, and was rewarded with a by no means poor collection of bones and teeth: Mammoth and Woolly Rhinoceros, Irish Elk and Reindeer, Red Deer, Bison, Cave Lion and Bear, Hyæna and Wolf, Wild Goat, Wild Horse, and Wild Boar have all been found. One of my earliest trophies was a fairly complete skull of a young Bear; and I have representatives of all the others. From a small hole in the side of the valley hard by, which I thought looked promising, we have obtained a large number of Rhinoceros teeth, together with those of several of the other kinds present in the Den. The examination of these cavities and their contents demonstrates the fact that they were the actual dens of some of these animals. The abundant marks of gnawing show that the Hyænas made their home there. Over the vertical cliff many a worn-out beast was hunted to its death by the Hyænas and Wolves, and its shattered carcass dragged to this hole.
ROMANO-BRITISH POTTERY, COINS, HUMAN REMAINS, ETC., WOOKEY HOLE CAVE.
Photo by H. E. Balch.
HYÆNA DEN AND BADGER HOLE, WOOKEY HOLE.
Photo by Bamforth, Holmfirth.
It is easy to wander back in imagination and bring the state of things that existed visibly before the mind's eye: to watch the unwieldy Mammoth or the great Rhinoceros rolling its huge bulk along; to see the pack of cowardly Hyænas or Wolves hounding some worn-out Bison to its death, over the awful cliff close by their den, which purpose effected, they themselves rushed headlong down the steep slope hard by, to fight and wrangle over the shattered carcass of their prey; or to see the Lion lying in wait by the peaceful stream in the little valley for the noble Elk or timid Deer to come for its accustomed drink; and then to behold savage Man, with his weapons of flint or bone, when out on his hunting expeditions, arriving at this peaceful valley, and there for a while making his quarters in the Den, and lighting his fires at the entrance to scare the wild beasts from their lair.[1]
How long ago this state of things existed is a matter for geological calculation. Suffice it that the earliest historical records show us no wild beasts existing in the land except Bears and Wolves, along with the Red Deer which is with us to this day. Now there is no sign at Wookey Hole of the time when the Bear and Wolf alone remained and all else had become extinct from the land. There is no trace whatever in the Hyæna Den of the pottery which we find in the entrance of the great cave. Without a doubt, the latest deposits here are vastly older than the most ancient deposits there. The commingling of northern, temperate, and southern forms gives evidence of oscillations in temperature such as demand a vast time to have taken place. Yet the whole of these remains accumulated between the time when the entrance to the Den was left exposed by the gradual destruction and retreat of the cliff face up the valley, and the infilling and choking of the entrance by the accumulating gravel which eventually blocked it. It is only within the last few years that the gravel arch which was first formed, and then undermined in the search after bones, has collapsed, revealing the true configuration of the cavern. Here we must again postulate a great antiquity for our caverns, since these deposits exist in what is really an insignificant fragment of the great cavern, and are only an incidental part of the material which an exposed cavity is sure to receive. But when purely geological evidences are taken into account, the demand for time becomes still more imperative. The subterranean Axe occupies, as its present channel, vast chambers formed by the excavation of thousands of tons of the hard Conglomerate, great halls over 70 feet in height and of fine proportions. The process which formed these is still at work enlarging them, till in the course of time they must collapse; yet no change is ever visible, no signs of recent action can at any point be seen. The rarely occurring great flood serves but to remove one film of sand from the floor and to leave another in its place as the waters subside. So slow is the undermining action that no eye can ever detect a change though the waters rise ever so high. Yet this channel is but one of five distinct levels which the river has occupied from time to time, until it has found in turn a lower course, leaving its sands as a record upon each, here and there sealed down beneath a mass of stalagmite. What untold ages have elapsed since first the river flowed through these upper channels!
PLAN AND SECTION OF WOOKEY HOLE CAVERN.
(Click on map to see a larger version. Not available on all devices.)
But an examination of the top of the Mendips points to a vaster antiquity still. The published horizontal section No. 17 of the Geological Survey gives an excellent idea of the plateau of Mendip, which stretches from immediately north of Wells to the neighbourhood of Compton Martin. This plane of denudation would never have been reached save by the long-continued action of subterraneous streams, an assumption supported by the existence of the great depression crossed by the road from Wells to Priddy. That depression of nearly 100 feet in depth and several miles in length, hollowed in the hard Carboniferous Limestone, here dotted with every known type of swallet or swallow hole, has been obviously formed by the slow action of swallet streams prolonged through vast periods of time. Every atom of the millions of tons of solid rock represented by this depression has been borne down the course of the subterranean Axe. Tributary to this depression a little valley has been eroded across the Old Red Sandstone anticline immediately to the north, and in it are deposited masses of Dolomitic Conglomerate, the component pebbles of which were derived from the surrounding rocks. The same valley existed, therefore, in pre-Triassic time, and as there was obviously no other outlet for its water, the cavities into which it flowed—that is to say, the swallets and subterranean channels—must have existed also, and are therefore pre-Triassic in date. Though at first sight this appears impossible, inasmuch as the known course of the resulting Axe River is through Triassic Conglomerate, I propose to show that such a conclusion is necessary and inevitable. Long ago I was struck with the fact that at Wookey Hole the Triassic Conglomerate attains an abnormal thickness, and measurements have shown that at the far end of the cavern there is certainly a thickness of over 350 feet of this rock. As there is no sign of any approach to the Limestone against which it must abut, nor any change in the character of the Conglomerate itself at this point, I think that we may fairly conclude that the total thickness of it must be at least 500 feet. Now this is a vast deposit, far exceeding any known to exist elsewhere, and it requires a special explanation to account for it. Only one explanation is possible. The Conglomerate is here filling in some great pre-existing valley in the Mountain Limestone. That is just what I should expect.
The great Limestone cavern formed by the action of the swallet streams in early Triassic times collapsed, and formed a Limestone ravine, into which was rolled a great accumulation of fragments of the Limestone derived from the slopes and crags above. With the whole of this part of England these beds were subsequently submerged, remaining so during the deposit of the whole of the Secondary beds; and on their emerging once more from beneath the sea the lines of drainage were re-established along the old courses, where these had not been choked with sedimentary material. Forcing a way through the Conglomerate which then impeded its flow, the river formed those cavities which we see. Indeed, it may well be that the successive levels cut by the Axe through the Conglomerate may represent stages in the uplifting of the land, the lowest channel being the last and largest, as it has been formed during an extended period of stability. But we are not without evidences of another sort as to the existence of some of our swallet ways at that remote period. The cavities found in the Holwell quarries, near Frome, filled in with Rhaetic material containing bones and teeth of fishes; those of Gurney-Slade, near Radstock; and numbers which from time to time are laid bare in the Limestone quarries, all filled in with Triassic sediment, show that penetrating waterways of considerable size then existed. There was, too, at Charterhouse-on-Mendip, north of Cheddar, a fissure, possibly a swallet, which, being open, received an infilling of Liassic material that is known to extend to a depth of 300 feet. Had these channels been closed by a narrow aperture temporarily blocked, no infilling but by water would have taken place when the land sank beneath the waters of the Triassic and Liassic seas.
Furthermore, in the position of the entrances of many of our swallets there is corroborative evidence to the same effect. The great circular swallet on Rookham, near Wells, situated far from any existing line of drainage, yet withal one of the largest cavities on Mendip, shows that great changes have taken place since it was an active waterway. The position of the caverns of Compton Bishop and of Banwell, far removed from any stream or any line of drainage possible with the present contours, proves that the configuration of the country has utterly changed since they formed the points of engulfment of any streams. The Coral Cave (as we have called it) at Compton Bishop descends abruptly into the earth, and its outlet must have been far below the level where now the Triassic Marl forms an impervious barrier. The waters of Banwell Pond rise through the Marl, forced upwards through beds which do not yield water and ordinarily retard its passage. Doubtless the Marl when it was deposited covered some earlier outlet from the Limestone. The waters of St. Andrew's Well, at Wells, are forced upwards through Dolomitic Conglomerate and overlying Pleistocene gravel, the former of which was doubtless deposited upon what was once a free and unimpeded outlet from the Mountain Limestone, similar to that of Cheddar. The water of Rickford, near Burrington, resulting from the streams engulfed at and around Burrington, is forced up through the Secondary beds, which have been similarly deposited upon the pre-existing outlet. All these things help to demonstrate that what I contend is true, viz. that our caverns as a whole are pre-Triassic in age. The Long Hole at Cheddar, high in the cliffs above Gough's Cave, lends its evidence too. Contrary to all the other caves at Cheddar, it was a channel of intake for the water which formed it. Doubtless it is a fragment of a larger cavern, which, before the gorge of Cheddar itself was formed, existed in the mass of rock occupying the whole area. At the northern end of the Limestone defile of Ebbor, near Wells, the ravine is carved through Dolomitic Conglomerate, which has been much worked for iron ore. The fact that this Conglomerate was deposited in a depression in the land, at the head of the present ravine, yet without entering it, suggests that here was an entrance to a series of caverns, the collapse of which produced the gorge.
THE GREAT SWALLET ON BISHOP'S LOT, PRIDDY
Photo by Bamforth, Holmfirth
ST. ANDREW'S WELL, WELLS.
Photo by H. E. Balch.
The Devil's Punchbowl, near the Castle of Comfort Inn on the Mendips, is, in all probability, a collapse of the remarkable Lias beds which there occur into some pre-existing cavity in the Mountain Limestone below, somewhat in the same manner as the Shake Holes in the Glacial Drift on the Yorkshire moors were formed. No one questions the existence of the cavities beneath before the deposit of the Drift, neither do I doubt the existence of swallets beneath the Trias and Lias before these were deposited on the Mendips. The question naturally arises, Why do we not find in our caverns remains of all the ages that have elapsed since that time? Why are only Pleistocene remains discovered? Surely, because we have not found them it does not follow that they are nonexistent. The recent discovery of Pliocene remains in a cavern at Doveholes, near Buxton (Derbyshire), is clear proof that we may search hopefully for similar remains in the Mendips. It must be borne in mind, that the further we go back in time, the more certain we are to find that the contents of any Limestone cavern would be completely mineralised, until the whole of the contents may have become cemented into a solid mass. Where running water is present, attrition may have destroyed them, or borne them onwards to those great depths where, constantly submerged as they must be, we can never hope to penetrate. I am aware, however, of the existence, in the Eastwater Cavern, of very ancient chokes of water-borne material, from which I have some hope of obtaining remains.
I might mention the demonstrated antiquity of the bosses of stalagmite in Kent's Cavern at Torquay, and from it argue the immense age of the great masses of stalagmite in the Mendip Caves, but, recognising the variable rate of deposit of the carbonate of lime in different caverns, and indeed in different parts of the same cavern, no useful purpose would be served thereby. The huge Beehive of Lamb's Lair at Harptree, the large boss in the first great chamber at Wookey Hole, Gough's "Niagara" at Cheddar, the tall and slender pillars in Cox's Cave at Cheddar, and the taller "Sentinel" pillar at Wookey Hole, all demand for their formation a prodigious length of time, which it is but folly to attempt to compute with our present information. Certainly many thousands of years are required for some of them, and it should be remembered that we have then arrived merely at the time when the floor upon which they stand had received its final form, the action of running water having ceased.[2] Who can doubt then, that, as we stand in the great waterways of the profound depths of our hills, we are looking upon scenes which have varied little since remote ages, and that in some form or other these waterways played an important part in the degradation of the earlier and loftier Mendip range?
It is worthy of remark in this connection that the veteran M. Martel, commenting upon the caverns of Mendip, says, "In consequence of the existence, on the flanks of the Mendip Hills, of deposits of Triassic Dolomitic Conglomerate (Keuper) of Rhaetian beds, and of possibly Glacial alluvia, unconformably on the Carboniferous Limestone, the outflow of the water in the risings operates in three ways: (A) by large fissures in the Limestone itself, when it flows out freely, as at Cheddar; (B) through the crevices in the Dolomitic Conglomerate (the Axe at Wookey Hole, etc.); (C) where the outlet of the water from the Limestone is hidden by alluvia (St. Andrews Well, at Wells). The consequence of this arrangement is that it will be possible—notably at Wookey Hole, when the explorations now going on have enlarged the new galleries recently found—to ascertain whether the Dolomitic Conglomerate is there shown in long beds of ancient shores, regularly superposed on the Limestone, or rather accumulated in filled-up pockets, in hollows pre-existing in the Limestone; that is to say, there will be a material verification of Mr. Balch's hypothesis (already outlined by Boyd Dawkins in 1874) of the very ancient excavation of certain caves of the Mendip Hills, even before the Keuper period. The lie of the Conglomerate under the vaulted roofs of Wookey Hole appeared to me to favour this idea. And it is necessary to wait till formal proofs have been gathered together here, that caves were hollowed out there before the Trias. I recall, on this subject, that long ago I concluded, with Messrs. De Launey, Van den Broeck, Boule, etc., that the formation of caves could commence in the most distant geological epochs, and that the pockets of phosphorites, among others at Quercy and the Albanets of Couvin (Belgium), testify to caves or abysses of at least Eocene times."
H. E. B.
We are called a nation of sportsmen; yet the first criticism we level against any new sport, not our own, is the question, usually unanswerable and always irrelevant, What is the use of it? One may then, with a certain show of propriety, point out that cave exploring is a sport not entirely lacking in utilitarian or scientific objects. It belongs, in fact, to that large class which originated as something else than mere pastime. Mountaineering and hunting are typical representatives of that class. The earliest mountaineers were geographers. Cave exploring was first of all taken up as a branch of archæological and palæontological research, and then as a general inquiry into the physical nature of caves. But a science that has discovery as its principal object, and hardships and adventure as its natural concomitants, is bound to attract as many sportsmen as scientists. The geographical might be called the sporting sciences. And so there are now many ardent cave explorers who would blush to be called speleologists, their sole motive being the enjoyment of the game, and scientific results purely a by-product. Thus the science of caves has given birth to a sport that subserves its aims in the same irregular way as rock-climbing and peak-bagging subserve the aims of geography, geology, meteorology, and other sciences.
Speleology itself is, comparatively, a new science. Cave hunting, the search for human and animal remains, has been an important bypath of scientific investigation since the days of Dean Buckland and the discoveries recorded in Reliquiæ Diluvianæ, 1823. Professor Boyd Dawkins has in recent decades done still more valuable work for palæontology. Speleology is a word of both wider and narrower meaning; in the widest sense covering all kinds of knowledge about caves, their geography, geology, hydrology, their fauna, their palæontology. But most speleologists confine their attention to the physical characteristics of caves. This side of the inquiry has practical utilities. At Vaucluse, for instance, near Avignon, M. Bouvier in 1878 explored the channels of a gigantic siphon that carries the waters of an inaccessible reservoir into the Fontaine de Vaucluse, a famous "rising." His object was partly scientific, and partly to determine the nature of this permanent source, so as to utilise its waters to regulate the level of the Sorgue, to extend the irrigation system of the neighbourhood, and to secure water-power for manufacturing purposes. The Katavothra of Pod-Stenami were enlarged by an enterprising engineer, and protected by iron gratings, after their subterranean exits had been explored, and so utilised to regulate the drainage of the marshy plains of Laibach, and to prevent periodical inundations. In our own country, underground exploration has brought to light valuable water-supplies, and enabled us to safeguard the public interests by pointing out sources of pollution. Caves are most abundant in the districts where those great fissures known as rakes occur, which are rich in minerals, especially lead, calamine, copper, gypsum, and fluor-spar. During the short period in which cave work has been taken up as a sport, discoveries have been made, which of course it is impossible to particularise, that may be the source of considerable profit in the future.
The majority of those engaged in this physical exploration of caves are French. France possesses a Société de Spéléologie, the secretary of which, Monsieur E. A. Martel, author of Les Abîmes, is a most indefatigable and courageous explorer, and the man who has made the science an important and a living one. But M. Martel himself awards the title of "créateur de la spéléologie" to a forgotten predecessor, Dr. Adolphe Schmidl, who published Die Grotten und Höhlen von Adelsberg, in 1854. In this country, although such brilliant discoveries have been made of extinct animals and prehistoric relics of humanity, cave exploring of this kind is a new pursuit. M. Martel says, in Irlande et Cavernes Anglaises, 1897: "In short, the underground of the calcareous regions of the British Isles may be considered as being, topographically, very insufficiently known; this is the conviction impressed on me by my own researches in 1893." Something has been accomplished since that date. Two or three clubs, consisting chiefly of climbers, and a few speleologists working independently, have effected a thorough examination of the great caverns of the Peak, the extraordinary system of underground waters, huge cavities, and profound abysses in the West Riding, and the beautiful caverns of Somerset. But the ground that remains unexplored, the opportunities for adventure and the possibilities of discovery are such as may probably astonish those people who think there is nothing of the sort left in Old England.
Caves are formed in calcareous strata by the chemical action of water laden with carbonic acid, and by the mechanical action of streams. In consequence of the original structure of the Limestone, the joints of which run at right angles to the bedding planes, these eroded hollows have two dominant forms: the vertical pot, swallet, or hole, produced by the widening of a master-joint; and the horizontal water-channel, running in the same direction as the line of stratification. But the strata being commonly tilted, these pits and abysses are often a long way out of the vertical, and the caverns that follow the strata very steep. Many of these ancient watercourses are now dry, but others are still traversed by streams, and present the explorer with most formidable obstacles. The complete exploration of any cave system would involve the tracing out of all its passages from the point where the stream or streams enter the earth to the point of exit. But I know not a single instance where such a task has been worked out in its entirety. In many cases the streams enter the ground merely as small rivulets, and begin to excavate passages practicable to man only at a considerable depth. "Siphons," or traps, as they ought to be called, complete or partial chokes, and a variety of other causes, may put insuperable obstacles in the explorer's way.
Take two of the most important cave problems still awaiting solution, one in Yorkshire, the other in Somerset. A large beck is precipitated into the abyss of Gaping Ghyll, 360 feet deep, and emerges from an opening in the hillside, a mile away, close to the mouth of Ingleborough Cave, which was itself an earlier exit. Several parties have descended Gaping Ghyll, and followed the passages at the bottom to a distance of more than 1000 feet. Then impenetrable water-sinks, and muddy chambers with no outlet, have been encountered, and the communication with the lower cavern has hitherto proved undiscoverable. Both the dry galleries and the canals of Ingleborough Cave have been explored, with great toil and daring, to a considerable distance upwards, with similar results; and though many speleologists are still absorbed in this problem, there is little hope that it will be cleared up without adopting the drastic and costly measure of cutting through the obstructions. The other problem is that of Wookey Hole, the cave in Britain which has the longest history, and which is still yielding interesting discoveries. A number of streams disappear into the earth on the Mendip plateau, 2 miles away and 700 feet above, and find their issue in the source of the Axe at Wookey Hole. Two of the Mendip swallets have been explored to a great depth. Swildon's Hole, an exquisite series of terraced galleries and stalactite grottoes, has been penetrated to a depth of 300 feet. But a more determined attempt has been made to reach the bottom of the Eastwater Cavern. This was discovered in 1902 by my friend Mr. Balch, of Wells, by means of opening the swallet, where a tiny brook ran away through small crevices in a Limestone ravine. A far-extending cave was thus disclosed, full of intricate ramifications, that explain in a graphic manner how new galleries are formed and old ones left dry and deserted, as the result of floods and partial chokes. We have, in the longest route discovered in this complicated system, reached a distance of 2000 feet from the entrance and a depth below the surface of 500 feet. At this point no absolutely impassable barrier has been met with. There is reason to hope that we may still advance farther into the mysterious region between it and Wookey Hole. But the formidable difficulties of the journey hither have set a limit to endurance. Hundreds of feet of creeping through steep, narrow, and contorted passages, compared with which a series of drain-pipes would afford luxurious travelling; perpendicular drops of 50 and 90 feet, with no convenient ledges at the top for letting men down; and, in addition, the necessity of transporting great quantities of tackle to the bitter end of it, have made a twelve hours' day underground as much as we could stand. The difficulty may perhaps be got over by means of a subterranean bivouac. Unfortunately, it would not do to leave the apparatus in position for long beforehand, as it would deteriorate so rapidly. In Wookey Hole itself, we have not yet succeeded in reaching a farther distance than 600 feet from the cave mouth; there a submerged tunnel has stood in the way. But Mr. Balch has thoroughly explored the upper passages that honeycomb the rock above the known caves; he has discovered a number of promising galleries, which are being slowly cleared of débris; and, among them, a series of the most beautiful incrusted grottoes in Britain. A season of drought may reveal an opening up the river-course.
Innumerable similar problems still await solution. Some of us have been engaged in trying with pick and crowbar to engineer a way into the swallets above Castleton, which send their waters through the heart of the hills down to the caves in the dale of Hope. One of these, which we have penetrated to a distance of 350 feet, may turn out to be the entrance to as wonderful a chain of caverns as those of Eastwater. Long Kin Hole, Helln Pot, and other tremendous cavities in the Ingleborough district, still promise good sport. Of all the varieties of cave forms these vertical holes are the most impressive, and also the most perilous to explore. No exploit stands out more finely in the record of that intrepid explorer, M. Martel, than his single-handed descent into Gaping Ghyll, the first ever accomplished. In the Cevennes, however, he has reached the bottom of abysses still more profound, though without the unpleasant accompaniment of falling water. One of the most awkward of the descents described by him is that of the Aven de Vigne Close (Ardèche), 190 mètres in depth. This strange pit is almost a corkscrew in shape, comprising five perpendicular drops, the bottom of one being a few feet from the top of the next. To manage the final pitch, with a chain of rope ladders 40 mètres too short, it was necessary to get six men down to the "Salle à Manger" at the foot of the fourth stage, others remaining as sentinels at the head of the various stages. Some of these waited on their narrow perches for eleven hours, in the dark, with nothing to do but listen to the distant noises of their comrades at work. One man, hanging at the end of a rope, succeeded single-handed in fastening a pulley to the free end of the second ladder, and so let down the third ladder to the required extent. This critical operation was carried out under grave difficulties, the nerves of the whole party having been shaken a few minutes earlier by the accidental fall of a heavy lamp, which was within an inch of killing the men beneath.
Elden Hole, in the Peak of Derbyshire, a yawning cavity 200 feet deep, with an inner cave 65 feet deeper, has been descended several times recently. On the first occasion, through the inexperience of the party, I had the privilege of spending nine hours in the hole, in a state of uncertainty as to whether it was in the power of the other men to get me out. On the next occasion, we let down a dozen men safely. But there still remains the possibility that excavation might clear up the puzzle as to the connection of Elden Hole with other swallets and caves in the vicinity. The old miners believed that it had communication with the natural chambers in the Speedwell Mine; and that is a problem which will entail exploration in collapsible boats along the flooded levels. The great chasm in the Speedwell, which used to be reputed bottomless, has been proved to be only 90 feet deep. It has an upward extension, in the same steep rake, which has not been climbed, nor its top so much as caught sight of. It attains a height, most probably, of at least 400 feet. That is a problem worthy the mettle of our most skilful cragsmen. In the Blue John Mine, a vertical fissure has been climbed, by a party properly roped up, to the height of 130 feet, between walls splendidly adorned with polished and translucent stalagmite. Ladders may sometimes be rigged up, one above another, to reach hollows in the roof of caves. In this way a handsome grotto was discovered above Peak Cavern. When these vertical fissures are open to the sky, it is a simple matter to fix tackle, and even a windlass, for letting men down. When they open in the floor of a well-nigh impracticable gallery, as in the Eastwater Cavern, the difficulties of securing pulleys and ropes are serious. There our troubles are aggravated by the proximity of deep, gaping chasms at the foot of each pitch, lying in wait to receive falling bodies. Nevertheless, by an ingenious arrangement of life-line and pulley, the entire party gets safely to the bottom of the gulf and back again, although it is usual in such situations to leave a sentry behind at the top. Grandest of all these underground cavities in England is the great chamber of Lamb's Lair, in the Mendips. The approaches and subsidiary chambers of that marvellous cavern are magnificent in the richness of their incrustation and their colouring; but this mighty hall surpasses the rest by far. Floor, walls, and roof, of a dome-shaped chamber 110 feet high, are a mass of sculptured transparencies, fantastic reliefs and glowing enamel, all the colours of the rainbow being produced by the different veins of minerals. Only a strong party of experienced climbers or cave workers, fully equipped, should venture to explore this fine cavern in its present dangerous state.
No chapters in Les Abîmes are more absorbing than those describing the exploration of underground waters. By means of collapsible boats, M. Martel explored the concealed streams that tumble into the canyon of the Ardèche. In 1890-91, M. Mazauric, with enormous toil and considerable danger, traced out the labyrinthine ramifications of the Bonheur at Bramabiau (Gard). The Tindoul de la Vayssière (Aveyron), with its yawning abyss and powerful subterranean torrent, and the Causse de Gramat (Padirac), both entailed the descent of a deep chasm and the navigation of large streams. At Padirac the exploring party made their way in four boats along a river, with frequent portages caused by dykes of stalagmite, and discovered some of the most exquisite and romantic stalactite scenery in the vaults through which the river flows.
As a sport, cave exploring ranks high. The exertion it entails is exceedingly severe. The innumerable obstacles and difficult problems to be faced make incessant demands on our inventiveness, adaptability, and presence of mind. The exposure, the hardships, the dangers that must be encountered, form an admirable discipline. Those who consider these any detraction from the merits of the sport, must condemn, not one sport, but a whole class. Running risks, we must remember, is always foolhardy, but to nullify danger by means of science and skill is an aim worthy of the noblest kinds of sport. It will, of course, be objected that the lack of exhilarating conditions, and of the stimulus of fresh air, deprives the sport of the usual benefits of outdoor games. But the air at the bottom of a cave 100 or more feet deep is usually as pure and sweet, and not seldom as dry, owing to its free circulation, as that on the hills. Then the darkness and the sense of imprisonment, you say, are not conducive to healthy enjoyment. But a cave explorer, enthralled by the manifold interest and excitement of the pastime, will never admit this. The variety of entertainment it affords constitutes a peculiar charm.
Only to judge by the number of climbers that have taken up cave work as a pastime, there must obviously be a natural relation between this sport and rock climbing. Certainly, there are many methods common to the two sports, and the expert cragsman has an immense advantage over others when he takes to cave exploring. But the methods and appliances of the mountaineer are restricted by artificial regulations. There are many things that must not be done, even to enable a climber to ascend an otherwise inaccessible peak or to avoid serious peril. In cave work, on the other hand, the difficulties and dangers are multiplied so formidably by the singular conditions, of which darkness is but one, that such prohibitions would be absurd. When one may be called upon to climb a wall of mud, or a sheet of slippery stalagmite, or to traverse water-swept rocks with an unfathomed pool or swallet underneath, every safeguard must needs be utilised. Any mechanical means of accomplishing, facilitating, or expediting a passage is legitimate in cave work; ropes, pulleys, ladders of rope and wood, windlass, rafts, boats, crowbar, pick, shovel—all these, and an enormous variety of other things, have their place in the cave explorer's equipment.
One might write a volume on the equipment of cave explorers. Hardly any other sport requires so formidable a variety. I must limit myself to a few words. The explorer's dress should be a boiler suit, made all in one piece from neck to heel, and with no pockets or buttons to catch in the jagged Limestone, plenty of both being provided inside. He must renounce any hankering after waterproof garments, the proper precaution against the effects of wet being to wear thick woollen underclothing. His boots should be nailed after the manner of those worn by rock climbers. Candles are the best illuminant, much better than any lamp—acetylene, electric, or other. But a supply of magnesium wire should be carried, with waterproofed matches in water-tight boxes; and a powerful limelight, burning ether instead of hydrogen, for the sake of portability, is a useful auxiliary. Boats have been used in some of the caves in the Peak, in Wookey Hole, and in the cavern of Marble Arch, explored by M. Martel, in Ireland. Plenty of rope—not of the Alpine Club material, but hempen—is necessary, and a few rope ladders often come in handy. The only rule of the game that I should like to insist upon is, that no damage should be done to the beautiful features of a cave. It is a rule observed by every cave explorer worthy of the name. The temptation to acquire specimens must be resisted.
The first thing that the cave explorer, eager for discovery, has to learn, is not to lose himself. In many cases no special precautions are necessary, but if there are numerous bifurcations, specific measures must be adopted. Often it is sufficient to station a hurricane lamp or a good-sized candle at the cross roads; a surer method, but one that is rather troublesome, is to unreel a thread as we advance. Such a cavern as Goatchurch, in Burrington Combe, Somerset, is a perplexing maze, where one loses one's bearings completely two minutes after looking at the compass. The mass of the hill is shivered into innumerable fragments, of giant size. Passages striking off along the fractures often lead one back imperceptibly to the point of divergence. At the Eastwater Cavern, in the same district, after I had already gone four times through the enormous aggregation of shattered rocks at the top, where a human body is like a beetle in a heap of macadam, I tried in vain to make my way out without using the life-line. Although there is but 100 feet of it, one takes half an hour to get through. The original explorers spent a much longer time in discovering a practicable route. For my own part, I was lost in a few moments, and compelled to return. The imprudence of two men in the Bagshawe Cavern, in Derbyshire, who went too far in advance in their anxiety to be discoverers, led to an uncomfortable experience both for them and for their rescuers. This very extensive cavern has a number of ramifications. The two men who were following reached a distant and unexplored part of the cave, only to find that they had missed their comrades, the sand and clay on the cave floor being still perfectly smooth and untrodden. They failed to discover the wanderers in the neighbouring passages, and lost their own way for a time before they got back, through the winding tunnels, low-roofed fissures, and deep canals, crawling, scrambling, and wading breast-deep through icy water, to the place where they had parted. They hoped the truants had found their way back, but there was no sign of them, and preparations had to be made for a second journey. After a fatiguing quest, that lasted several hours, they found the missing adventurers in a remote part of the cavern, nursing their last shred of candle and waiting to be rescued. The experiences of some youthful explorers in Wookey Hole, who found themselves on dangerous ground and all their matches gone, are described on another page.
There is a romance about cave exploring that is almost unrivalled. The conditions of the sport are so weird and exciting, so strangely different from everything we are accustomed to. To be so near to, and yet so far from, the scenes of our everyday life; to be launched on a voyage of discovery on an English river, or to be the first to gaze on some miracle of fantastic crystallisation only a few miles away from a large town—these are among the attractions of the sport, at least in its present stage. There is nothing in this country to compare with the prodigious caves of Kentucky or the terrific subterranean defiles of Adelsberg. One might as well look for the magnificence of the Alps among our English mountains. Yet the caves and gulfs of Derbyshire and Yorkshire have a grandeur of structure and diversity of character, and the Somerset caves a brilliance of crystalline deposits, that are fully as admirable and impressive.
E. A. B.
"Where Albion's western hills slope to the sea,
There is a cave, and o'er its dismal mouth,
Whence come to quick, mysterious ears hoarse sounds
Of giant revelry, the ivy grew
And shut the old sepulchral darkness in;
And by its side a well, whence ever full
And ever overflowing, silent, deep,
And cold as death, the waters creep
Adown the broken rocks in search of day.
Above it frowns a fretted, stony brow,
And only from the setting sun e'er came
Within that place the joyfulness of light."
W. W. Smith, Angels and Men: a Poem.
Hardly anywhere else in Britain is the mind borne down with such a sense of incalculable antiquity as at Wookey Hole. Nowhere, certainly, is there anything like such a continuous record from ages inconceivably remote. To touch first of all upon periods that are historical and measurable, we have the name Wookey, which appears to be the one bestowed by the ancient Britons; for it is a recognisable corruption—especially as the people of the district sound it, "Ookey"—of the Celtic Ogo, a cavern, the same word, Ogof, as the modern Welsh still apply to several caves in the Principality. Clemens Alexandrinus, in the second century A.D., has a reference to the cavern, and there are periodical allusions in Latin and English writers from that time to the present. In the Middle Ages its fame as one of the wonders of England was great. William of Worcester has a quaint description; he says, "Its entrance is narrow, and the ymage of a man stands beside it called the Porter, of whom leave to enter the Hall of Wokey is to be obtained." What became of this janitor is now unknown, unless he be represented by the recumbent monolith still to be seen outside the portal. References to the antiquities of Wookey Hole occur in Leland's Itinerary and in Camden's Britannia, and there is incorporated in Percy's Reliques a ballad, by an eighteenth-century virtuoso, Dr. Harrington of Bath, entitled "The Witch of Wokey," recounting an old legend of the neighbourhood.
"In aunciente dayes, tradition showes,
A base and wicked elfe arose
The Witch of Wokey hight."
So it begins, and goes on to relate, in the sham antique style of the day, how a malevolent old woman was for her misdeeds changed to stone by a "lerned clerk of Glaston." The Witch, a black, aquiline profile in stone and stalagmite, is with her culinary utensils the chief attraction to sightseers in the first great chamber, or, as it is sometimes called, the Witch's Kitchen.