British caves and speleology / by E.A. Martel.

  • Martel, E. A. (Edouard Alfred), 1859-1938.
Date:
[1897]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: British caves and speleology / by E.A. Martel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    A communication in form of a siphon exists between the two currents. The ramifications of the cave of Cradle hole have about from 800 to 1000 feet of development. At 220 yards from Cradle hole there is a yawning chasm, the sides of which have been but lately disclosed ; it is, without doubt, quite a recent giving way of the ground (altitude 600 feet), which is not marked on the county map. It is smaller than Cradle hole, and no cave opens at the bottom; it has unhappily obliterated the subterranean passage, over which the sinking of the earth has taken place. Barely a quarter of a mile farther on, or at about one-third of a mile from Cradle hole, and about half a mile from Marble Arch, there is a real pit (aven), that is to say, a narrow natural well (altitude 620 feet). The fathom-line descends 72 feet, that is to say, to the altitude of 550 feet, or about that. Unhappily, we had not time to descend into it, as we wished to examine, at 50 yards from there, the spot where the river Monastir (or Owenbrean) loses itself under the rocks at Pollawaddy. This river descends from the very summit of Cuilcagh. Its disappearance is very picturesque. At 612 feet of altitude (map) the ground comes suddenly to an abrupt termination, and a cliff from 60 to 80 feet high forms a precipice at our feet, barring a hollow ravine at least 320 feet wide, into which the river descends in small cascades. A little byway leads us to its banks, at the very foot of the cliff, into which the water (58° Fahr.) disappears. In the very course of the stream, which is 20 inches deep, we enter under a gallery, 3 feet wide and from 10 to 25 feet high. At 130 feet from the entrance we were stopped by a large stem of a tree, which we could not remove. Thus we were compelled not to know if the stream would have led us to the foot of the pit. It now remains to descend into the pit (aven), and to finish the exploration of the disappearance of the river at Pollawaddy, as well as of Cat’s hole (quarter of a mile north-west of Pollawaddy), where the stream Sruh Croppah disappears; and of Pollasumera (two-thirds of a mile east from Pollawaddy), where a third nameless river is also swallowed. III.—Arch Cave or Waterfall Cave, Ireland. Opposite to Cuilcagh, the mountains of Belmore (1312 feet) include also between lakes Macnean, Melvin, and upper Erne, some calcareous ground, the sub- terranean hydrology of which deserves to be studied. On July 14 and 15, 1895, with the very obliging indications of Mr. Plunkett, of Enniskillen, who had himself made some pre-historic excavations in different little caves of Belmore, Mr. Jameson and I examined the basin that serves to feed the source of Arch cave, or Waterfall cave, situated at about 8 miles west of Enniskillen. It is one of the most curious springs that I have ever observed, and was opened by the force of underground waters between the clefts and joints of carboniferous limestone. The origin of the powerful source of Arch cave, whose volume announces the drainage of a rather considerable surface of ground, must be as follows :— This surface is that of a tableland with three shelves or terraces, which extends towards the west of the cave, and constitutes, in a gentle slope, the eastern declivity of the hills of Tullybrack (1223-1249 feet). On this tableland a quantity of swallow-holes are the points of absorption of the atmospheric Avaters. The greatest part of these swallow-holes, or pipes, are impenetrable, being full of pebbles and lumps of earth, like the hetoires of France, and the Sauglocher of Austria; but at least two are open and penetrable, like the abysses, or pits, and we descended into them. The first, Sumera, or Noon’s hole, is the deeper and the more curious; the plumb-line marked 154 feet, that is, 216 feet above the outlet of Arch cave, as the hole opens at 747 feet of altitude. It is a real