We would like to wish all readers a very happy 11/12ths of a
New Year.  It has taken rather longer
than expected to recover from the Christmas bumper number, and most members
will not be getting this one until January is over.  With luck, however, we hope to catch up.

Somebody suggested that now the B.B. has entered its 21st
volume, it can be said to have come of age. This suggestion was countered by the Editor (who had visions of having
to produce two large B.B.’s in a row) by pointing out that the B.B. was first
produced in January 1947 and thus it will not be 21 until next January.  Still, it’s a thought and perhaps some older
members who remember early B.B.’s might care to comment by writing something
for a “Twenty First Birthday” number. You have a year to produce something, so there isn’t much excuse.

“Alfie”

Notices

Goon Suits.

These are available from Alan
Coase at 42/6 delivered or 35/- when Alan is on Mendip.  Write to: – A. Coase,

35 Broughton Road, Croft, Leicestershire.

NiFe Cells.

The club are arranging to get
Goon Suits from a source in

Scotland
for sale to members at 40/-.  These will
be down on Mendip at Easter.  Meanwhile
if anyone is feeling desperate/affluent, one can buy Goon Suits at 50/- from
the Army Surplus Stores (Hotwells Rd. & Grosvenor Rd.).

BEC Survey Course

The first B.E.C. course on Surveying is now fully booked up,
but it is planned to run a further course if demand persists.  For the benefit of those who may wish to
consider having a go the course runs over three days – two on one weekend and
one on the next.  The first course is on
the 18/19 of February and the 25th as follows –

Saturday 18th February.  (At the
Hunters.)

Sunday 19th February. 

Practical work.  Surveying in the Railway Tunnel and/or Rabbit
Warren areas of Cuthbert’s. Alternatively in Goatchurch and Avelines.

Saturday 25th February.  (At the
Hunters.)

The Maypole Sink

The method of tracing streams by
the variation of hardness and water temperatures was described as an interim
report by Roger Stenner in the Christmas B.B. (Volume XX).  Here is an actual example of the method in
use.

(The Location of
the Maypole Sink without the aid of Chemicals)

The temperature of the Maypole Series stream is sometimes
significantly different from the rock temperature at that depth in the
cave. 

Readings taken in December 1965 showed: –

Maypole Stream,
Traverse Chamber            8.60
Main Stream, Water Shute                              8.55
Kanchenjunga Drip                                          8.95

All temperatures being in degrees centigrade.

This would indicate that the source of the Maypole Stream is
a local swallet.  An analysis of water
samples taken in May 1966, gave the following results for water hardness (In
parts per million of Calcium Carbonate).

St Cuthbert’s
Pool                                               148
ppm
Plantation Stream                                               114
ppm
Maypole Series Stream (Long Chain Pitch)  143
ppm
Pulpit Passage (East Inlet Stream)                150
ppm

The fact that the Maypole Stream is softer than water from
S. Cuthbert’s Pool proves that the pool cannot be the
sole source.  Admixture with softer water
is indicated.

A swallet exists as in the sketch on the next page, in which
water from St. Cuthbert’s Pool is mixed with the softer

Plantation water.  No other local swallet fulfils these
requirements, and it must therefore be the Maypole Sink.

This swallet has long been thought to be the Maypole
Sink.  The survey points to a source in
the vicinity of the swamp I have drawn as the St. Cuthbert’s Pool, but hitherto
this belief had remained unproven.

R.D. Stenner

Letter

We have received the following from “St. Cuthbert”: –

To the Editor, Belfry Bulletin.

Dear Sir,

I am so glad my letter sparked off such delightfully witty
replies.  What a pity their authors chose
to hide their talents under nome de plume.

Yours Faithfully
            St. Cuthbert

Long Term Planning – 3

There were no further letters from members to the Long Term
Planning Committee at their last meeting. Some progress was reported on moves to assess the Government Grant for
possible snags, and the proposal to explore the possibility of making the club
into a Company limited by guarantee.

The main subject of the month was that of Situation.  What could we best do with our present site,
or even should we stay on it?  It was
decided that we ought to stay for a variety of reasons. We have agreed to do
all we can with a view of seeing how best to fit in with our immediate
neighbours, and to re-open negotiations with the Paper Mill to see if we can
buy some more land adjacent to the Belfry Site. If we can do that we may be able to alter the position of the track and
there is a scheme to see if we can purchase the other track (the one which used
to lead to Art Dor’s milking shed) so that we can let Walt use it and close the
present “Belfry Avenue” to all except the club.

The Old Barn was also discussed.  The Committee arranged to buy this for £50
last year for a variety of reasons – mostly as an insurance against various
eventualities.  It was decided by the
Long Term Planning committee that we should hang on to this, and not try to
dispose of it.  It could well prove a
long term asset to the club.

We are also going to ask the Hon. Treasurer at the next
meeting of the General Committee to start collecting money by any means that he
can at present as we feel that a certain amount of this type of exercise could
begin now, even before the club have been asked to decide.

Next month, the Long Term planning Committee are going to
review what they have done to date, so if any member has any point of view to
express, now is the time!

Swildons Goes to Wookey

A five year hydrology study of the underground water
distribution on Mendip is being undertaken by Dave Drew in connection with the
Water Board.  Eventually, a full report
on this will be published, but some of the findings to date are of interest.

Lycopodium spores (which are seeds of the Club Moss and
being extremely small and light are ideally suited to this type of exercise)
were put in the streams entering a number of

Mendip
Caves
at noon on New Year’s Day 1967.  The
first samples form the resurgences at Wookey and Cheddar were then collected
eleven hours later.  Results from then
were as follows: –

Spores placed in various caves were stained to that their
origin could be sorted out at the resurgence. With the sole exception of Cuthbert’s, all the times are the transit
times from entrance to resurgence.  In
the case of Cuthbert’s the first sampling and so the actual time may well have
been much quicker than the 11 hours noted. In addition, it is known that water takes approximately 1½ to travel
from Wookey 15 to the entrance.  Thus
from the entrance of Cuthbert’s to the first known upstream place in Wookey
must take less than 9½ hours.  The time
taken for the water to travel from the entrance of Cuthbert’s to the sump must
be subtracted from this total, and we are left with the conclusion that water
travels extremely rapidly across the unknown gap between Wookey 15 and
Cuthbert’s Sump, which supports the theory that some of this distance could
well be open passage rather than seepage below the water table.  Let us hope that at least some of this
conjecture will be removed by the forthcoming diving op. in Cuthbert’s Sump.

Surveying Cuthberts

by Dave Irwin.

Early in 1966, it was decided to commence a new survey of
the know system at a minimum of C.R.G. Grade V that would be published in parts
with the ‘definitive’ publication on the cave. The reader might well ask “why?” when so much has been done in the
past.  The lack of passage detail and
permanent stations is the simple answer, which made the tying in of side
passage extremely difficult.  It is hoped
to make the survey a complete one, including all passages where practical – if
any one would like to survey the route through the boulder floor of cascade Chamber
they are welcome!

A large traverse of the main cave is almost complete – when
it is closed it will form the basis of the survey.  (Plantation Junction – Stal Pitch – Cerberus
Series – Everest – Boulder Chamber – Pillar Chamber – Wire Rift – Pulpit – Traverse
Chamber – Upper Traverse Chamber  – Harem
Passage – Rabbit Warren and back to Plantation Junction.)  In addition to this, the Mud Hall area
(between Rocky Boulder Passage and the New Stream Route) Rabbit Warren to Sump
and Cerberus series are almost complete, together with numerous traverse lines
crossing the Cascade area (Fingers, Railway Tunnel and Boulder Chamber).

To date, most of then survey is to Grade VI and it is hoped
that it will stay at that standard.  As
regards the survey as now drawn up, there are two surprises (a) The sump
Passage runs down dip and (b) Harem passage is immediately above Bypass Passage
subject to traverse correction.  The
equipment being used by myself is a combined mounted abney level and prismatic
which is tripod mounted.  This cuts time
to a minimum and up to 38 legs have been surveyed in less than two and a half
hours.  Many thanks to Bryan Ellis for
this great advance in cave surveying. Roger Stenner is using a conventional compass and a tripod to Grade
VI.  In each case, the ‘leap frog’ method
is being used and so far has given very good results with closure error of
between 0.45 and 0.9%

When will the survey be completed?  The answer to that is anyone’s guess, but the
end of 1968 should be a reasonable estimate – sooner if other surveyors come
forward.  What about it, Alfie?

Finally, thanks to all who have helped sometime under very
uncomfortable conditions – particularly Dermot Statham and Joan Bennett.