Cave Hunting

e of Wookey Hole.-The Goatchurch Cave.-The Water-caves of Derbyshire.-Of Yorkshire.-The Ingleborough Cave.-The Rate of Deposit of Stalagmite.-The Descent into Helln Pot.-The Caves and Pots

y Atmospheric Water.-The Circulation of Carbonat

the Sea and by

certain characters which are easily recognized. Their floors24 are very rarely much out of the horizontal, their outlook is over the sea, and they very seldom penetrate far into the cliff. A general parallelism is also to be observed in a group in the same district, and their entrances are all in the same horizontal plane, or in a succession of horizontal and parallel planes. In some cases they are elevated above the present reach of

the lava while it was in a molten state: but these are of comparatively little importance so far as relates to the general question of caves,

Arenace

ssive25 millstone grit of Derbyshire and Yorkshire present many examples of this, as for instance in Kinderscout in the former county. The rocks at Tunbridge Wells also show to what extent the joints in the Wealden sandstones may become open fissures, more or less connected with caves, on a small scale, by the mere mechanical action o

reous Rocks of

us age. In France also, those of Maine and Anjou, and most of those of the Pyrenees and in the department of Aude, are hollowed in carboniferous limestone, as well as the greater part of those in North America, in Virginia, and Kentucky. The cave of Kirkdale in Yorkshire, and most of those in Franconia and in Bavaria penetrate Jurassic limestones, which have

Quercy, and Angoumois, and some of those in Provence and Languedoc, those of Northern Ita

the bones which they contain, such as those of Lunel-Viel, near Montpelier, those of Pondres and Souvignargues, near Som

es of the extinct mammalia. M. Desnoyers points out their identity, in all essentials, with those in calcareous strata, and infers that they have been produced in the same way. Some of them may have been formed by the removal of the salt, which is very frequently interbedded with the gypsum, by the passage of water. In Cheshire the pumping of the27 brine from the saliferous and gypseous strata

es to Pot-holes, "C

ion in some cases from the valley to the ravine, and from the ravine to the cave, is so gradual, that it is impossible to deny that all three are due to the same cause. The caves themselves ramify in the same irregular fashion as the valleys, and are to be viewed merely as the capillaries in the general valley system, through which the rainfall

tages; sometimes being mere shallow funnels, that only contain water after excessive rain, and at others as profound vertical shafts, into which the water is continually falling, as in Helln Pot, in Yorkshire. The cirques, also, described by M. Desnoyers, belong to the same class of cavities, although all those which are mentioned by the Rev. T. G. Bonney,24 a

en we shall proceed to show that the chemical action of the carbonic acid in the rain-water, and the mechanical friction of the sand and gravel, set in motion

Wookey Hole, nea

r to man and the lower animals. Among the water-caves, that of Wookey Hole25 is to be noticed first, since its very name implies that it was known to the Celtic inhabitants of the south of England

back by a weir, for the use of a30 paper-mill a little distance away. A narrow path through the wood, on the north side of the ravine, leads to the only entrance now open.27 Thence a narrow passage leads downward into the rock, until, suddenly, you find yourself in a large chamber, at the water level. Then you pass over a ridge, covered with a delicate fretwork of dripstone, with each tiny hollow full of water, and ornamented with brilliant lime crystals. One shapeless mass of dripstone is known in local tradition as the Witc

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of Wookey Hole

key. And this observation has been verified during the last few years by throwing in colour and chopped straw. The stream at Priddy sinks into a swallow-hole (Fig. 1), and has its subterranean course determined by the southerly dip of the rock, by which the joints running north and south afford

atchur

e, beautifully arched, and passing horizontally east and west, and just large enough to admit a man walking upright. At the further end numerous open32 fissures, caused by the erosion of the joints in the limestone, cross it at right angles, and pass into several ill-defined chambers, partially stalactitic, but for the most part filled with loose, bare, cubical masses of limestone. Two of the transverse fissures lead into a large chamber, at a lower level. At its lower end, on crawling along a narrow passage, we came into a second chamber, also of considerable height and depth, at the bottom of which the noise of flowing water can be heard through two vertical holes, just large enough to admit of access. On sliding down one of these we found ourselves in a third chamber, which was traversed by a subterranean stream,

or33 this to have taken place it is necessary to suppose that, while the Goatchurch was a water cave, the ravine on which it opens was not deeper than the entrance-in other words, that in the interval between the formation and excavation of the chambers and passages, to

obtained a fine tusk of mammoth, we found a molar of bear, and a fragment of flint, which were imbedded in red earth, and were underneath a crust of stalagmite of about two inches

sage, these animals ran to and fro across the lighted field with extraordinary swiftness, and had it not been for the white streaks on the sides of

dog is said to have travelled back to Cheddar. Some eighteen years ago, while exploring the limestone caves at Llanamynech, on the English border of Montgomeryshire, I met with a similar story. A man playing the bagpipes is said to have entered one of the caves, well provisioned with Welsh mutton, and after he had been in for some time his bagpipes were heard two miles from the entran

caves of D

istant swallow-hole. At a little distance from Buxton a smaller cave, known as Poole's Cavern, is in part traversed by water, which has found an outlet at a lower level, and allowed of the present entrance being used by the Brit-Welsh35 (Romano-Celtic) inhabitants of the district as a habitation in the fifth and sixth centuries.28 There are, besides these, very ma

-caves of

alities of a mountaineer may be exercised, and there is sufficient danger to give a keen zest to their exploration. The mountain streams sometimes plunge into a yawning chasm, locally known as a p

uth it collects in a ravine, and then leaps into a deep bottle-shaped hole called "Gaping Gill," into which Mr.36 Birkbeck unsuccessfully attempted to descend, the sharp edges of the rock cutting the rope, and very nearly causing a serious accident. In depth it is abo

heavy rains, when the current reverts to its old passage. The followi

rough a stalagmitical barrier which the water had formed, and obtained access to a series of expanded cavities and contracted passages, stretching first to the N., then to the N.W.; afterwards to the N. and N.E., and finally to the E., till after two years spent in the interesting toil of discovery, at a distance of 702 yards from the mouth, the explorers rested from their labours in a large and lo

of brilliant stalactite, placed at regular distances, convert the rude fissure into a beautiful aisle of primæval architecture. Below most of the smaller fissures hang multitudes of delicate translucent tubules, each giving passage to drops of water. Splitting the rock above, these fissures admit, or formerly admitted, dropping water: continued through the floor, the larger rifts permit, or formerly permitted, water to enter or flow out of the cave. By this passage of water, continued for ages on ages, the original fissure was in the first instance enlarged, through the corrosive action of streams of acidulated w

rated the subaërial from the subaqueous dripstone, is very distinct, the former being deposited in thick bosses, crumpled curtains, drops, straws, pyramids, and other fantastic drip-structures, while the latter is honeycombed, and composed of rounded, grape-like masses. Between them an ice-like c

in length, and consisting each of a shining drop of water, enclosing a minute fungus. These may possibly explain in some degree the peculiar fungoid-appearance of certain small bosse

aversed by deep, vertical grooves, caused by the passage of water laden with carbonic acid. The general surface of the roof, where the rock is bare, has had its fossils etched out by th

ccumulation o

one case, and in the other about one-fifth of that amount. This rate does not agree with the rate of increase noted by Mr. Farrer and Professor Phillips in the case of a large stalagmite called the Jockey Cap, on which a line of drops is continually falling from one point in the roof. Its circumference in 1839 measured 118 inches, in 1845, 120 inches, and in 1873, I found it to be 128 inches. The annual rate of increase from 1845 to 1873 is ·2941 inch, and that from 1839 to 1845 is ·2857. I found, howe

its past or future condition. Its age in 1845 was estimated by Professor Phillips at 259 years, on the supposition that all or nearly all of the carbonate of lime in each pint was deposited. If, however, it grew at

ed a considerable lapse of time, may possibly have been formed at the rate of a quarter of an inch per annum, and the human bones which lie buried under the stalagmite in the cave of Bruniquel, are not for that reason to be taken to be of vast antiquity. I

nt into H

hole known as Diccan Pot (Fig. 2, a). On descending into it, the visitor finds himself in the bed of a stream that now roars in a waterfall, now gurgles over the large fallen blocks from the roof, and that here and there has worn for itself deep pools by the mechanical friction of the sand and pebbles brought down by the current. If it

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Helln Pot and the

n of the materials swept down by the current. Above the water-level the sides of the cave are honeycombed and eaten into the most fantastic and complex shapes, the resultant surface (see Fig. 7) bearing small

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iagram of

. Birkbeck and Mr. Metcalfe made the first perilous descent in 1847. The party, consisting of ten persons, ventured into this awful chasm with no other apparatus than ropes, planks, a turn-tree, and a fire-escape belt. On emerging from the Long Churn Cave they stood on a ledge of rock about twelve feet wide, and which gave them free access to the "bridge" (Fig. 2, b). This was a rock ten feet long, which rested obliquely on the ledges. Having crossed over this, they crept behind the waterfall which descended from the top, and fixed their pulley, five being let down while the rest of the party remained behin

nded in the bed of the stream, which hurried downwards over large boulders of limestone and lost itself in the darkness of a large cave, about seventy feet high. We traced it downwards, through pools and rapids to the first waterfall, of about twenty feet. This obstacle prevented most of the party going further, for the ladders were too short to reach to the bottom. By lashing them together, however, and letting them down, we were able to reach the first round with the aid of a rope, and to cross over the deep pool at the bottom. Thence we went on downwards through smaller waterfalls and rapids, until we arrived at a descent into a chamber, where the roar of water was deafening. Down to this point the daylight glimmered feebly, but here our torches made but little impression on the darkness. O

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elln Pot, showing Wa

ct to the walls. Beneath each waterfall was a pool more or less deep, and here and there in the bed of the stream were holes, drilled in the rock by stones whirled round by the force of the water. High up, out of the present reach of the water, were old channels, which had evidently been watercourses before the pot and cave had been cut down to their present level. In the sides of the pot there are two vertical grooves reaching very nearly

realize what a dangerous feat the first explorers performed when they ventured into an unknown chasm, comparatively unprepared. Th

een formed by the same action as that by which it was being deepened before our eyes. It was merely a portion of the vast cave into which it led, which had been deprived of its roof, and opened out to the light of heaven. The bridge was but a fragment of the roo

nst one another and the rocky floor. The gritstone has probably been derived from the wreck of the boulder clay on

Pots at We

ll in Pot-hole

overhanging ledges, and the thick covering of green moss, to which the spray clings in tiny glittering drops, form a picture which cannot easily be forgotten. In the sunshine an almost circular rainbow is to be seen from the bottom. The stream passes from the bottom into a cave, and thence downwards to two large pots (Fig. 6), about two hundred yards away. In flood-time the channel has been known to become blocked up, and Weathercote has been filled to the brim. Usually after heavy rains the current is said to flow so violently into the first of the pot-holes, that it throws up stones at least thirty or forty fe

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f Subterranean Co

rocks are very much contorted, and on their waterworn edges lie the nearly horizontal limestone strata, in which the upper part of the valley has been scooped. As we rise the ravine opens into a valley (Fig. 6), along which the50 beck flows, until suddenly it is lost in a fissure, at a place called Godsbridge. Its subterranean course is marked, first of all, by a small depression known as Sandpot, and still higher by Hurtle Pot. It ultimately reappears at

always arranged on the line of the natural drainage, and generally open on the sides of the valleys and precipices. If you look northward from the flat crown of Ingleborough, you can see the ravines which radiate from it on the surface of the shale below,

and their Relation to

51 may be gathered from the above examples. Universally the pot-holes, ravines, and caverns are so assoc

which the rock is gradually eroded. The limestone is composed in great part of pure carbonate of lime, which is insoluble in water. It is, however, readily dissolved in any liquid containing carbonic acid, which is an essential part of our atmosphere, is invariably present in the rain-water, and is given off by all organic bodies. By this invisible agent the hard crystalline rock is always being attacked in some form or another. The very snails that take refuge in it

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n acid-worn joint, D

re, however, general principles underlying the confusion. The lines of joints in the strata being lines of weakness, searched out by the acid-laden water, have been widened into chasms, sometimes of considerable depth; and as they cross at right angles, the whole surface is formed of rectangular masses, each insulated from its fellow, and some of them detached from the strata beneath so as to form rocking-stones. The mode in which the acid has attacked one of these joints in the limestone of Doveholes in Derbyshire is represented in Figure 7, the surface being honeycombed and worn into sharp points, solely by chemical action. The

alley systems on the surface, determined by the direction of the drainage; the long chasms represent th

necessarily follow, that to it, as well as to the mechanical power of the waters flowing through them, their formation and en

ted by their grooved, scratched, and polished surfaces, and by the sand, silt, and gravel carried along by the currents. The generally received hypothesis, that they have been the result of a subterranean convulsion, is disproved by the floor and roof being formed, in very nearly every case, of solid rock; for it would be unreasonable54 to hold that any subterranean force could act from below, in such a manner as to hollow out the complicated and branching passages, at different levels, without affecting the whole mass of the rock. Nor is there cause for holding the view put forth by M. Desn

ravine, and that into a cave. The ravine is merely a cave which has lost its roof, and the valley is merely the result of the weathering of the sides of the ravine. There can be no manner of doubt but that, in both these cases, the ravine is gradually

falling away and uncovering the subterranean course of the Aire. Eventually the ravine thus formed will

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of Source of the

ce the agents by which the work is done are universal, and calcareous rock for the most part of the same chemical composition, the results are the same, and the calcareous scenery everywhere of the same type

s, that he terms the latter "cavernes à ciel ouvert." I arrived independently at5

deepened by glacial action. That, for instance, of Chapel-en-le-Dale bears unmistakeable evidence of the former flow of a glacier, i

seize the atoms of carbonic acid, and thus be dissolved more quickly than the lower portions. Hence the funnel shape which they generally assume, and which can be studied equally in the compact limestone or in the soft upper chalk. They are to be seen on a small scale also in all limestone "pavements." Sometimes, however, the first chance which the upper portions of the funnels have of being eroded by

rally found in

The mountain limestone of Castleton, in Derbyshire, offers an example of caves intersecting faults without any definite relation being traceable between them. The ramifications of the Peak cavern traverse the Speedwell Mine nearly at right angles, and the water flowing through it has been traced, Mr. Penningt

e cavities in which the minerals occur have been formed by the action of running water, and have subsequently been more or less filled with their mineral contents; and these have been deposited on the sides of the cavity by the same "incretionary35"58 action, as that by which dripstone i

tched and grooved sides, and polished surfaces or slicken-sides, to have been the result of subterranean movements by which the rock has been broken by mechanical force. They have been subsequently modified, in various ways, by the passage of w

ous Ages

enty feet, and wandered a mile in one only of its branches, without finding an end to 'its interminable windings.' He says-'Innumerable openings presented themselves on all sides as we passed along, many of which appeared to be equal in height, beauty, and extent to the one we were following. The roof, a stratum of coral-rock fifteen feet thick, was supported by massy and superb stalactitic columns, besides being thickly hung with stalactites from an inch to

hes, Acrodus minimus, and Hybodus reticulatus, the elegant sculptured Ganoid fish, Gryrolepis tenuistriatus, and the tiny marsupials, Microlestes and its allies. This singular association of terrestrial with marine cr

y accumulations of calc-spar or other minerals, and they are arranged

heir death in the open pit-falls, just as the sheep and cattle do at the present time. The Hyænodon of the Meiocene had, probably, the same cave-haunting tastes as his descendant, the living Hyæna, and the marsupials of the Mesozoic age might be expected to be preserved in caves, like the fossil marsupials of Australia. The chances of preservation of the remains when once cemented into a fine breccia, or sealed down with a crystalline co

ical record imperfect, may be61 gathered from the estimate, which Mr. Prestwich has formed, of the amount of rock removed from the crests of the Mendips and the Ardennes, which is in the one case a thickness "of two miles and more," and i

ing up o

of the channel, above the level of the water, are adorned with a stony drapery of every conceivable shape. The rate at which this accumulation takes place depends upon the free access of air necessary for evaporation, and is therefore variable,-as in the case of the Ingleborough cave. In all the caves which I have examined62 there is a free current of air. If a water-channel becomes blocked up by either or both these causes, the joints and fissures in the rock offer an outlet to the drainage, more or less free, at a lower level, as in the Ingleborough cave, Poole's cave, near Buxton, and many others. Sometimes, however, owing to the increased rain-fall, or to the obstruction of the lower channels, the water re-excavates the old passages, as we

f Ingleborough, Buxton, Cheddar, Wookey Hole, and a great many others

ve of

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in the Fairy

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ites in the Fair

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e Fairy Cha

stalline pavement, perfectly horizontal, and studded here and there with round64 bosses (Figs. 9, 10, 11), either red or snow-white. From the roof hang stalactites offering the same beautiful contrast of colours, forming a delicate canopy of tassels, or passing downwards to the floor and constituting slender shafts about three feet long, and about the diameter of straws. Each of these is hollow, translucent, and more or less traversed by water, and in some places each stood next its fellow, almost as close as the straws in a cornfield. Sometimes the shaft stands on a cone (Fig. 11) of dripstone, more or less raised above the floor. Small pools of water occupy hollows in the pavement, each lined with glittering crystals of calcite (Fig. 12), which are slowly shootin

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ools in Fa

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ool in Fai

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of Pool in F

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one with S

tube, of the diameter of a drop, is slowly developed, which continues to lengthen until the result is one of the straw-columns, with a hole in the centre for the passage of the water, which cannot readily part with its carbonic acid till it arrives at the end of the tube. Sometimes the hole has been subsequently blocked up by calc-spar, or the general surface been covered over with successive layers, until it becomes a mass of considera

after scene of fairy beauty, unsullied by man, opened upon my eyes, the ringing of the fragments on the crys

olished by friction in the agitated water, that they deserve the name of cave-pearls from their lustre. In Fig. 16 I have represented a tiny basin with its pearly67 cont

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in containin

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oid Structure

l microscopical sections (Fig. 17) showed that each was formed originally on a slight elevation of the general surface, which would cause a greater evaporation of water than the surrounding portions, and therefore be covered with a greater deposit of calcite. This process would go on until the height was reached to which the water slowly passing over the general surface would no longer rise. Hence the remarkable uniformity of the height of the bosses. The evaporation is greater at

d on minute fungi, such as those in the cave of Ingleboro

rock Cave,

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id Structure,

ew loose stones rested on the bottom. The whole surface, even including the stones upon the floor, one of which is figured (Fig. 18), was so completely covered with these peculiar fungoid bodies, that it was impossible to move without destroying hundreds of them. All were about the same height, 0·2 inches, snow-white,69 or of a rich reddish brown, and conformed to the unequal surface on which they stood. It is quite impossible to describe th

onate of Lime dissolve

s compared with that carried by the streams into the rivers, and the rivers into the sea. An idea of this quantity may be formed from the calculat

s of iron, alumina, and phosphates, constitute the rest. If we refer a small portion of the carbonates and the sulphates and chlorides chiefly to the impermeable argillaceous formations washed by the rain-water, we shall still have at least ten grains per gallon of carbonate of lime, due to the chalk, upper greensand, oolitic strata, and marlstone, the superficial area of which, in the Thames basin above Kingston, is estimated by Mr. Harrison at 2,072 square miles. Therefore the quantity of carbonate of lime carried away from this area by the Thames is equal to 797 tons daily, or 2

ut, where it is localized by the convergence of water, is capable of excavating the deepest gorges and the longest caves. Th

ion of Carbo

stony groves, of which each tree is a colony of animals, and in the wave-defying reef it reverts to its original state of limestone. Or, again, it is seized upon by tiny masses of structureless protoplasm, and fashioned into chambers of endless variety and of infinite beauty, and accumulated at the bottom of the deeper seas, forming a deposit analogous to our chalk. In the r

erature

he district in which they occur, and therefore cold in summer and warm in winter. This wo

en some amount of heat does reach the ice, the latter melts but slowly, since a kilogramme of ice absorbs 79° C. of heat in melting; and thus when ice is once formed, it becomes a material guarantee for the permanence of cold in the cave. For this explanation to hold good it is necessary that the level at which the ice is found should be below the level of the entrance to the cave; otherwise the mere weight of the cold air would cause it to leave its prison as soon as the spring warmth arrived." It is also necessary that the cave should be protected from direct radia

clu

ce, but of the mechanical action of rain-water and the chemical action of carbonic acid, both operating from above. We have seen that cave-hunting is not merely an adventurous amusement, but also a quest tha

idence which they offer as to the former inhabitant