Les Abîmes, les eaux souterraines, les cavernes, les sources, la spel&celig;ologie

Abstract

AT the outset the author remarks that the man is happy who realises in ripe manhood a project of boyhood. As a youth he was fascinated by the stalactites of the cave of Gargas, and the underground stream near Eaux Chaudes. The impression, at a later date, was deepened by the marvels of Adelsberg; and a visit to Han-sur-lesse (Belgium) in 1888, determined him to explore thoroughly the swallow-holes and caves of Les Causses—the limestone plateaux to the south and west of the Cevennes and Auvergne—with which he had already made acquaintance. Here the rivers often flow through deep gorges—almost cañons, such as is illustrated by Fig.1. In 1888 and the following year the author investigated the underground topography of the Departments of Lozère and Gard, and then extended his researches from Vaucluseto La Charente, going as far as the Puy-de-Dôme, the Côte-d'Or, and Provence, and, yet further afield, to Belgium, the Karst, and the Peloponnesus. Altogether he explored 230 “holes in the rock” which he thus classifies: Swallow-holes (abîmes)110, into 90 of which no descent had been previously made; emissaries of rivers (sources), 40, up 30 of which no one had penetrated; caves, 80, of which 45 were but imperfectly known. Besides these he had sounded, without descending, 35 swallow-holes, and examined 55 large emissaries, which could not be entered. Plans were made of underground galleries, the total length of which amounts to 50 kilometres; rather more than half the work being done by himself, the rest by collaborators. The result of this indefatigable, and sometimes rather risky,work is the most complete original memoir on “cave hunting ”that has ever been published, a quarto volume of nearly 600 pages, containing many plans, and still more numerous illustrations, the latter mostly from photographs, together with a full bibliography of the subject.

Les Abîmes, les eaux souterraines, les cavernes, les sources, la spelæologie.

By E. A. Martel. 4 phototypes and 16 plans, with 100 smaller illustrations. (Paris: C. Delagrave, 1894.)