Once again the time has come for nominations for the next
year’s committee to be sent in.  Older
members will remember that we used to print a special form for this purpose,
until it was realised that only about five or six of the two hundred printed
were actually used.  To save paper,
therefore, the form is no longer required. For newer members, the drill is this.

If you have any members in mind to stand for the next year’s
committee, first ASK HIS PERMISSION to nominate him.  Then write on a piece of paper, “I wish to
nominate ………as a candidate for the forthcoming election for the B.E.C.
Committee and he has agreed to serve if elected.”  Then put down your OWN name and membership
number and send it to Bob Bagshaw,

699
Wells Road, Knowle,

Bristol 4, or give it to him in person.  You may nominate as many people as you
wish.  There is no need to nominate any
of the present committee members since, unless they no longer wish to stand,
they are nominated automatically.

The first of the improvements to the B.B. has now been put
into effect.  This consists of a
manuscript book, into which the editor sticks all manuscripts received – thus
cunningly preventing their loss (a regrettable occurrence which has been known
to happen from time to time in the past!). This book will also provide a check on any controversy which might arise
in the future.  Please help by writing ON
ONE SIDE OF THE PAPER ONLY when submitting material for the B.B.  Thank you.

“Alfie.”

Showcaves in

Switzerland

This being the season for caving
abroad, we thought the following article, although rather long, would be
appropriate for this month….

by “Mo” Marriott.

My first opportunity of seeing something of caves in
Switzerland presented itself in the form of a
trip to the famous Hollock (I can spell sometimes!- Ed) on March 14th,
organised by a club in

Zurich.  For quite a modest fee, a whole day excursion
to some of the showcaves in
Northern Switzerland
was offered.  I accepted this offer
gladly and piled into the coach waiting at

Zurich at 7.00am, somewhat bleary eyed!

The Hollock lies in Canton Schwyz, some 30 miles south of
Zurich and about the same distance east of

Lucerne.  The journey from

Zurich takes one over several small passes rising
to about 3,000 feet and through the gentle mountains of Canton Zug – with the
curiously shaped mountain Rigi dominating the south shore, and eventually
through the narrow streets of Schwyz. The final stage of the journey is along the

Muota
Valley,
a steep sided valley with some very impressive limestone cliffs and a very
noticeable escarpment formation in places. After a while the bed of the valley grew steeper, swings towards the
east and climbs up to the little

village of
Hintertal at about
2,000 feet – the Priddy of Northern Switzerland.

At Hintertal, the party was met by Professor Bogli, one of
the leading figures in Swiss speleological circles, who first gave us an
excellent lecture – illustrated with slides – on the geology and hydrology of
the Hollock and the area around the cave. He then gave us a brief account of the exploration of the Hollock
System.

The Hollock lies on the western spur of a group of mountains
rising to about 9,000 feet.  This spur is
formed between the
Bisis
Valley and the

Pragel
Pass.  In fact, at Hintertal, no less than four
major valleys join the main

Muota
Valley, one of them
draining land up to 11,000 feet.  These
valleys were formerly glaciated, although in recent times the glaciers have
retreated, and in the area of the Hollock, only remnants of ice remain.  Large amounts of glacial debris may still be
seen in the valley floors.  A large over
thrust has occurred in the area, running S.W. – N.E., and the whole mass has
been thrust over the Santis group of mountains some miles to the north.  Considerable local faulting has also
occurred, and evidence of this may be easily seen in the cliffs along the

Muota
Valley.  This faulting has evidently influenced the
pattern of drainage in the area to a considerable extent.

The majority of the water feeding the Hollock is derived
from melting snow and ice, and it is because of this that the visit was made in
winter, since the major part of the system often becomes flooded with melt
water in spring and summer.  The Hollock
was the scene of a famous rescue some years ago when several people were
trapped in the cave by flood waters for quite a few days.

After the lecture from Professor Bogli, the party was taken
to see the major resurgence of the Hollock System.  Here the water rises through a mass of
boulders at the base of a highly waterworn cliff.  At the time of the visit, only a mere trickle
was flowing through the boulders, but during the late spring and early summer,
a fast river is formed some 20 yards wide and a yard or more deep.  One curious effect of this is that the cave
is cooler in summer than in winter, due to the cooling effect of melt water.

The party then returned to the village where we were
equipped with large hand carbide lamps, and set off up the icy track to the entrance.  The entrance passage descended
gradually.  The cross section of the
passage is lens shaped with the major axis orientated along the bedding.  In some places the size and symmetry of the
passage section is quite remarkable. There is a noticeable absence of formations in this section of the cave,
no doubt due to the effect of the seasonal floodwaters.  However, this is more than made up by the
abundance of all kinds of phreatic features, which makes the cave a living
textbook for the student of hydrology. Everywhere the rock is smooth and polished by the action of the
water.  In one section, known as the “

Glacier
Garden” there are a whole series of
perfectly formed potholes, some of them with a perfectly formed conical
‘island’ in the centre of the cavity. Many of these potholes were filled with large transparent blocks of ice
– hence its name.  Also in this section,
Professor Bogli pointed out several very high ‘solutional spirals’ in the roof
– in effect the opposite feature of the pothole.  The formation of these involves the mixing of
two different streams of water at different temperatures and containing
different amounts of dissolved gasses. All the other phreatic features were to be seen, but in a profusion that
I have never seen before.  Some unusual
features included one produced by water flowing over the ‘end grain’ of thinly
bedded limestone, resulting in a regular saw-tooth pattern.  In several places, the flow markings indicate
a vertical upward flow of water through cavities of extremely large cross
section.  I would hesitate to even try to
estimate the amount of water involved.

The tour eventually halted ay the “Bose Wand” – literally
“Angry Wall” in quite a large chamber about a mile from the entrance and about
a hundred and fifty feet below it.  At
this point, we were reminded that in summer conditions, we would be fifty to
sixty feet underwater!  The tour had only
shown us a mere fraction of the system – the principal claim to fame of the
Hollock being that it is the largest single system in the world.

The return to the surface, was followed by an excellent
lunch at the village hostelry – with traditional Swiss music and yodelling.

(At which point, in spite of our opening remarks, we are
going to leave ‘Mo’ until next month, to allow room for a report on the recent
rescue in Swildons, which we think members who are not in the area would like
to hear about.  Ed.)

*****************************************

Remark by Alan Thomas: “If caving receives much more adverse
publicity, the B.E.C. will have to go underground!”

Rescue in Swildons

On Sunday, 22nd July, at approximately 4pm, there was a
cloudburst over Mendip, and a large amount of water fell in a very short
time.  This followed a week of heavy
rain, which had saturated the ground and the water from the cloudburst thus ran
straight off the fields into the streams. After this rain, three cavers thought it would be wise to check up on
the state of Swildons, where they found that the stream had risen alarmingly
and that the entrance was impassable. They then checked on the barn and found evidence that at least four
people were in the cave.  The M.R.O. were
accordingly alerted and Howard Kenny and Jim Hanwell arrived on the green and
decided that the police should be informed. They in turn informed the fire brigade. By then several people had arrived on the green and Howard and Jim asked
the

Franklin
brothers and Mike Palmer to stand by to enter the cave when possible.

The Fire Brigade started pumping with three pumps at
approximately 7.30pm, but by 8.15, the water was still about six inches above
the grating and the pumps were only just holding this level.  However, after some deliberation, the party
entered the cave.  It was decided to go
through Kenny’s Dig to Jacob’s Ladder to see if the party were down there, then
to proceed down the

Short Dry Way
as far as the top of the Forty.

In the passage just before the turn to the

Wet Way, the water
was almost six feet deep, and the first man was roped on to traverse above the
water.  Once past this obstacle, the
rescue party made very good time to the Water Rift.  This was sumping, and the party had to go
through the upper keyholes.  The first
three to be rescued were found at the end of the passage above the Forty, and
they informed the rescuers that four other people were at the bottom of the
pitch.  Pete Franklin went to the top of
the pitch and thought he saw a light shining through the water.  Mike Palmer confirmed this and they decided
that something would have to be done quickly if there was a person stuck on the
ladder.  Accordingly, Keith sat in the
narrows above the pitch to block some of the water while Pete looked over the
edge.  He saw that one of the party had
climbed the ladder, but had been unable to get over the edge and had got onto
the edge just below the lip of the pitch and had tied himself on.  Keith let the water go while Mike lifelined
Pete over the edge.  Pete tied the bloke
on and the others hauled him up.  He was
cold and very wet, but after some glucose and chocolate, he was none the worse
for his ordeal.  He had been on the ledge
for an hour and a half.  He told the
rescuers than one of his party had fallen off the ladder, but thought he was only
winded.

After a further twenty minutes, the water level began to
drop – due to the fire brigade starting up more pumps – and it was decided to
descend the Forty.  Pete went down with
the First Aid Box and emergency rations, and was followed by Keith with the
M.R.O. goon suits.  They found three
others in the passage at the bottom of the pitch, out of the water and in no
danger.  Keith returned to the top of the
pitch to tell the others that everything was all right.  Mike then took the M.R.O. telephone down, and
Howard came down to check up and helped tie them on a lifeline and hauling
rope.  Within minutes, a very efficient
hauling party pulled the three up the pitch and escorted them out of the
cave.  Everyone had cleared up and left
the cave by 12.15pm.

The speed and efficiency of the rescue was greatly helped by
the good work of the fire brigade, and the Waterworks, whose pumping enabled
the rescuers to enter the cave when they did and kept the water low enough for
the rescue to continue.  The rescuers
helped the fire brigade to clear up the hoses and pumps and everyone left the
site at 1.15am

*****************************************

DON’T FORGET THE
A.G.M. AND DINNER

Notices

The B.S.A. National Conference will be held this year at

Leeds
University,
Bodington Hall, from the 10th to the 13th of September.  Members who are interested should apply to
Bob Bagshaw for further details.

*****************************************

The printing blocks for the B.B. covers having worn out, a
new set is about to be made.  This gives
an opportunity for a change of cover design. Several new designs will be on show at the Dinner this year, and members
will be asked to state their preference. If any member wished to submit a design, it should be done on card,
TWICE FULL SIZE.  Suitable cards are
available from the editor for ‘do it yourself’ enthusiast.

Cave Communications

This is not a formal report on what is being done on the
subject of Cave Communications, so much as a short article to give members some
idea as what is being proposed.

Several meetings of those interested in the subject have been
held, under the auspices of the B.E.C. and at this stage most of those taking
part are agreed on some general principles.

Telephones posses the great advantage of requiring very
little or no power to operate them, and can be made very small and light by the
use of modern components.  They suffer,
however, from two main drawbacks. Firstly, they need a line between each end.  Experience in Cuthbert’s has show that such a
line does not remain in good condition for very long, and the expense and
trouble involved in taking it down the cave and installing it permanently seem
only marginally worthwhile. Some new experiments with a strong line are being
done, and it may alter the position as far as damage to permanently installed
lines is concerned.  There remains the
second drawback to the use of telephones – their lack of flexibility.  It is hardly possible to lay a complete
telephone network throughout a complex system like Cuthbert’s  the Cave Communications men have thus
concentrated their attentions on other forms of communication.

Radio is obviously the most attractive of these.  There are however, some problems.  Radio waves will only pass through rock if
extremely long wavelengths are used, and this in turn makes the problem of
producing the right sort of aerial very great. Most of the systems which are being designed at present make use of some
form of loop aerial.  This seems to be
the best method.  The aim of the systems
being designed is to be able to communicate through a thousand feet of
limestone so that cave to surface and cave to cave communications will both be
possible.  Telephones will then be
restricted to short distances in the cave – say each side on an obstruction or
flooded part of the cave, so that the small amount of line required can be
easily carried and laid on the spot when required.

A new idea, which may prove possible in the more distant
future, is to use earth mode communication. This is a technique related to earth resistively measurement and has
been used in a very limited sphere in the

U.S.A.

The importance of good communications to rescue work is very
plain.  Much other work could also
benefit.  We look forward to being able
to report in the B.B. on the first successful system in the not too distant
future.

“Alfie.”