Any views expressed by any contributor to the Belfry
Bulletin, including those of officers of the club, do not necessarily coincide
with those of the editor or the committee of the Bristol Exploration Club,
unless stated as being the view of the committee or editor.

Club Headquarters

‘The Belfry’,

Wells
Rd., Priddy, Wells, Somerset.  Tele: WELLS 72126

Club Committee

Chairman:         S.J.
Collins
Minutes Sec:     R. Bennett
Members:          R. Bagshaw; D.J. Irwin;
R. Hobbs; M.A. Palmer; N. Jago; T.E. Large; A.R. Thomas; N. Taylor; R. Orr.

Officers Of The Club

Hon. Secretary: A.R.
THOMAS, Allen’s House,

Nine
Barrows Lane, Priddy, Wells,

Somerset. Tel: PRIDDY 269.
Hon. Treasurer:  R.J. BAGSHAW,

699 Wells Road,
Knowle,

Bristol
4.  Tel: WHITCHURCH. 5626.
Caving Sec:       T.E. LARGE,

39 Seymour Ave,
Bishopston,

Bristol.
Climbing Sec:    N. Jago,

27 Quantock Rd,
Windmill Hill, Bedminster,

Bristol
3.
Hut Warden:      R. ORR.  ‘The Belfry’, as above.
Hut Engineer:    R.
HOBBS,
Rose Cottage, West End, Nailsea,

Bristol.
Tacklemaster:    M.A PALMER.

27 Roman Way,
Paulton,
BS18 5XB
B.B. Editor:       S.J. COLLINS, Lavender
Cottage, Bishop Sutton, Nr. Bristol.
Librarian:           D.J. IRWIN, Townsend
Cottage, Priddy, Wells,

Somerset.  Tel: PRIDDY 369.
Pbs. (Sales)      C, Howell,

131 Sandon Rd.,
Edgbaston, Birminham.
Publications:     D.J. IRWIN.  Address as above
B.B. Post:         Mrs. K. Mansfield, Tiny
Kott, Little
London, Oakhill,
Bath,

Somerset.

MENDIP RESCUE ORGANISATION.  In case of emergency telephone WELLS 73481

 

Editorial

The Stalactite Curtain?

The setting up of the various bodies – like the Regional
Councils and the N.C.A. – was a move which many of us, who could remember a
less beaurocratic era, viewed with some concern.

It seemed to us a pity that the situation in the North
between cavers and local landowners had reached a state which necessitated the
formation of a body to fight for access on caver’s behalf.  A bit of time taken off from caving to buy
beer for the locals seemed a better way of doing things.  Nevertheless, we told ourselves, it was more
likely that conditions in the North were different from those on Mendip, and it
was hardly up to us to judge.

As long as the various bodies did what they were supposed to
do, there seemed no need for any active comment.  Any body whose job was to make caving simpler
to carry out was one which, on the face of it, there could be no quarrel with.

However; it has now been reported to us from sources which
are normally reliable, that a very sorry state of affairs has come to
pass.  It is one which could well affect;
every Mendip caver in the long run to a much greater extent than would appear
at first sight.  We have been told that
the Northern Council have decided to DENY ACCESS to all caves under their
control to ALL CAVERS from other regions unless their clubs join the Northern
Council.  The setting up of this
Stalactite Curtain – so different from the harmless and decorative formations we
have underground on Mendip represents a new and sinister twist to the caving
scene.

Well, at least we have been warned.  It appears that if Anybody is foolish enough
to give any of these bodies teeth then they will bite.  This latest move can by no stretch of the
imagination be described as helpful to cavers. It is a blatant example of power politics at its crudest – and should be
a warning to all Mendip cavers.

There will, of course, be a temptation to press for the
Southern Council to intensify its efforts to control caves on Mendip, so that
we shall be in a position to retaliate. To say that such temptation should be avoided would be seriously to
understate the position.  If this is, in
fact, carried out; then the eventual end of club caving and the introduction of
nationwide, regimented caving will follow inevitably.

In my opinion – and the reader is reminded that all the
editorial matter in the B.B. is not necessarily the opinion of the committee or
the club – anything is better than the type of regimented caving which we might
well be heading towards if we don’t watch out. The loss of caving areas or the loss of some Mendip caves are serious
matters and one would not pretend that any such losses will help our caving
position.  On the other hand, it is
possible to pay too high a price for things and, in this case, it would be as
well to go into the eventual price of bestowing power on councils before giving
it to them.  As Tony Johnson pointed out
last month, much of the ease with which we on Mendip have traditionally entered
caves, or dug on other people’s land has depended on the good relations we have
enjoyed with them.  It is this that I
feel we should be giving time to fostering – not councils.

“Alfie”

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

Members are reminded that NEW BELFRY KEYS are now available
from MIKE PALMER.  They are issued either
on production of an old key (plus 5p to cover administration costs) or by
paying a deposit of 20p.  Members are
reminded that ALL Belfry keys are the property of the club, and should be
returned if no longer required.

If you send your old key or your 20p by post to Mike,
remember to include a stamped addressed envelope for the return journey.

Mike also has a number of spare DIGGING ROPES in stock which
are being kept in reserve.  However, if
any diggers require a longer rope than they can get in the normal course of
events – contact Mike.

 

Exposure to Cold Water

A report on the recent PAUL ESSER
memorial lecture as advertised in the B.B. and attended by ALAN THOMAS, who
sends this report.

Paul Esser was a

Bristol
medical student who died two years ago in Porth-yr-Ogof.  This year’s lecturer was Bill Keatinge,
Professor of Physiology at the

London
Hospital.   The audience comprised a fair number of the
divers and the cavers from

Bristol,
to whom were added canoeists, mountaineers and yachtsmen.  There were a number of B.E.C. members there
but I was surprised not to see more.

The first point made was the enormous number of deaths in
cold water every year.  There are
approximately 1,000 compared to 12 or so in hill walking and climbing.

The second point was that the commonsense thing to do if
immersed in cold water often proves to be the wrong thing.  In the ‘Lakonia’ disaster, many people
undressed to facilitate swimming, and those who could not swim exercised in the
water to keep themselves warm.  In fact,
both these actions increased their susceptibility to hypothermia.  Experiments show that if you exercise in
water below 25OC, you increase your circulation and reduce your internal body
insulation and hence your deep body temperature.  Above 25°C exercise serves to increase body
heat.  Wearing ordinary clothing in cold
water may only keep the skin temperature up by a few degrees but it has a
profound effect on deep body temperature.

Thin people cool down much faster than fat people in cold
water – and hence fat people survive longer. Since it is too late to do anything about one’s build once one is in the
water, the only practical thing to do is to wear a well fitting wet suit.  Gloves should be worn even if the hands warm
enough, because there is a great loss of body from the hands.

Hypothermia alone does not account for all the deaths that
occur in cold water.  Between 10 and 15%
of people suffer from ventricular abnormalities on entering cold water.  In extremely rare cases, this could lead to
cardiac fibrillation and death. Immersion in cold water causes rapid breathing, a rise in blood pressure
and sometimes a doubling of cardiac output. These factors could lead to heart failure.  Rapid breathing in choppy water could lead to
the inhalation of water.

Professor Keatinge tackled the problem of sudden death in
cold water experimentally, and we saw on film a demonstration of a man swimming
in water at 4.7°C.  He started off
strongly enough and high in the water. There was little disturbance of the
water as he swam.  At the end of this
experiment (short of the attempted time) he abruptly stopped and commented
minutes later after he had been hauled out of the water and had made remarkable
recovery “I don’t know why I stopped – I just couldn’t go on.”  Had he been alone in open water, he would
certainly have drowned and the coroner might well have attributed his death to
cramp.  In fact, his difficulty was due
to the greater viscosity of water at the lower temperature.  This is a new observation and may well be the
answer to many hitherto unexplained deaths in cold water.

 

Traverse Closing In Cave  Surveying

Continuing and concluding the
article started last month by Dave Irwin and Roger Stenner.

The procedure is to fix the starting co-ordinate at, say,
point A (or point B) and calculate the co-ordinate changes of the line ADB to
point B.

Before the errors in a multi-traverse network can be thus
distributed, it is necessary to determine whether any part of the network
contains an error which is larger than the expected positional error.  This may be done by examining the co-ordinate
changes from one point in the network to another point, taking a variety of
routes chosen so as to reveal any bad routes. By a process of elimination between these bad routes, the actual section
which is causing the error may be isolated. To make the procedure clearer, consider the following example – which is
part of St. Cuthbert’s survey.  Figure
(v) is a block diagram representing the network of passages

This network contains 100 closed traverses, and an
examination of them all is impracticable and unnecessary.  The traverse lengths of each part of the
network are tabulated below:-

 

Traverse	Length	Legs
C5 – C7 C5 – L4 L4 – M1 L4 – 7A C5 – 7A 7A – I2 I2 – M1 I2 – I1 M1 – I9 I1 – I18 I18 – I9 C7 – G5 G5 – I9 I1 – H1 H1 – H7 H7 – G5 H7 – G5 C5 – I9	30’ 60’ 510’ 257’ 121’ 92’ 58’ 30’ 69’ 55’ 108’ 179’ 139’ 15’ 8’ 35’ 37’ 707’	3 4 36 14 9 7 3 1 4 8 6 12 10 1 2 4 + 2 + 38	The co-ordinate changes from station C5 to station 19 were examined by a number of routes.  The method used was find a number of routes which agree with each other and then to examine the routes remaining.  For the example shown, the results are shown below.   Routes 1, 2 and 3 were considered first.  Route 1 can be seen to be different from the other two, and a calculation showed that this difference was greater than that expected from positional errors.  Thus, the actual error was presumed to have been due to a mistake.  The actual place was pinpointed by the technique already described and, after resurveying the doubtful legs (only two were involved) the figures for route 10 were obtained with much closer agreement.

 

Traverse	North	East	Height	Slope Dist	Legs
1. C5-G5-I9 2. C5-C7-G5-I9 3. C5-7A-I2-M1-I9 4. C5-L4-MI-I9 5. C5-L4-7A-I2-M1-I9 6. C5-C7-H1-I1-I2-M1-I9 7. C5-7A-I2-H1-H7-G5 (Route 1) 8. C5-7A-I2-H1-H7-G5 (Route 2) 9. C5-7A-I2-I1-I18-I9 10. C5-G5-I9 RESURVEYED	73.62 79.12 81.40 79.97 81.73 80.39 75.60 74.47 78.60 78.66	131.47 123.06 126.19 127.47 125.55 127.87 125.09 126.49 125.81 126.69	114.26 107.30 107.57 107.33 109.07 102.20 108.20 107.44 104.63 112.32	846 347 340 565 536 288 440 436 405 846	48 25 23 33 32 17 34 32 31 48

The remaining routes were chosen to test each of the other
sections of the survey.  For each of the
routes, the difference between the co-ordinates and the approximate mean
co-ordinates were tabulated, together with the 1 and 2 standard deviation
expected positional errors.  Results are
as follows

Traverse	Deviation from mean in feet				Expected Error	Position
	N	E	Ht	Diff	1SD	2SD
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10	-6.4 -0.9 +1.4 0.0 +1.7 +0.4 -4.4 -5.5 -1.4 -1.3	-5.5 -2.9 -0.2 -1.5 +0.5 -1.9 +0.9 -0.5 +0.2 -0.7	+6.8 -0.2 +0.1 -0.5 +1.6 -5.3 +0.5 -0.1 -2.9 +4.8	10.8 3.0 1.4 1.6 2.4 5.7 4.5 5.5 3.2 4.8	3.5 2.2 2.2 2.8 2.8 2.0 2.5 2.5 2.4 3.5	7.0 4.5 4.5 5.7 5.6 4.1 5.1 5.1 4.8 7.0

It will be seen that route 6 contains an error greater than
the 2SD expected error and the possible compass error (which is 2.6ft for 1
degree calibration error.)  The co-ordination
differences indicate that there is a mistake in the C7 to H1 traverse.  Routes 7 and 8 differ from route 9 by a
relatively short passage length, and therefore a large change in co-ordinates
is not to be expected, but this is not the case in fact.  Examination of the co-ordinate changes
reveals that there is probably an error common to routes 7 and 8 and this must
be in the very short section from H1 to H7. The remaining routes are limits of precision of the survey.

The carrying out of this procedure is a very necessary
preliminary to the closure of a multi-traverse network if the surveyor is to
avoid falling into the trap of allowing one mistake to distort the whole
network – or the other trap of placing more reliance on his data than the
instruments permit.

Least Squares Method

Having determined which sections of a network are reliable,
there are two possible procedures.  With
access to a computer, it is possible to use the method if least squares and
thereby close the network in a single step. Most surveyors do not have access to a computer, but fortunately there
is an alternative method which will give satisfactory results very close to
those by the least squares method.  This
method has the advantage that the surveyor can see exactly what is happening at
each stage of the procedure, and can change the order of closure as he
needs.  If flaws or defects crop up, they
will be seen fairly quickly – which is not always the case when a major
computer programme is run.  A simple
electronic calculator is a great help in this work.

1.                  Work out the co-ordinate changes between two
points across the network as previously shown.

2.                  Assign co-ordinates to one of these points, and
work out the most probably value of the co-ordinates of the second point.

3.                  Ignore all stations except junction stations for
the moment.  Take a junction station on a
route which agrees closely with the co-ordinate changes of the stations already
fixed.  From each of the two fixed
stations, work out the co-ordinates of this station by a number of routes.  Find its most probable value as already
shown.  If it differs markedly from the
‘uncorrected’ co-ordinates, then this route is a good fit only by chance,
containing compensating errors which have been overlooked.  If so, scrap the procedure and start again
omitting the offending section.

4.                  Continue this procedure until the most probable
value of all junction stations have been worked out, always using the corrected
co-ordinate changes as they are successively derived.

5.                  Finish with junction stations on routes with
poorer closures.

6.                  Distribute the closure errors among the stations
between junction stations.

Stations rejected because of poor closure pose another
problem.  If closer inspection of all
field notes; calculations and rough drawings fail to reveal the mistake and if
resurvey is not possible, the rejected stations may be fitted on to the closed
network by distribution of the large error but in the report which accompanies
the survey, it should be made quite clear which parts of the survey contain the
large errors, which should also be quoted.

Finally, it should be remembered that this procedure will
cause some passage distortion – though this should be less than is found when
the old ‘hit and miss’ closure system is used (and which has been found in the
St. Cuthbert’s survey.  See note 1).

This is because the most probable values for a station’s
co-ordinates – whether worked out by the least squares method or the more long
winded method – are -not, and cannot be the correct values for those
co-ordinates.  They are, after all,
values obtained by rationalising imperfect results.

Computing Station Positions

The authors used standard duplicated sheets for entering
centre line measurements; calculations; station co-ordinate changes; corrected
station co-ordinates and basic station details (roof, wall and floor
distances).  This tabulation made the job
of checking much easier.  The station
co-ordinates were copied into a book in which traverse closures were used to
correct the co-ordinates to give the final station co-ordinates.  This procedure is recommended to other
workers.  If a computer is used, the
printout should be in a similar form.

The Use of a Computer in Cave Surveying

Desk calculators with print-out facilities speed up the
calculation of station co-ordinates from the data obtained underground.  A computer would do the same work much faster
and print the information in the format required.  It is, however, likely that restrictions on
the use of a computer would more than offset the advantage of the time saved
when comparing a computer with an electronic calculator.

Both procedures are a significant advance over the
mechanical or manual calculators used in the early years of the survey.  A lot has been written about the use of
plotting facilities.  The authors had the
opportunity to use such a computer and did not do so for two main reasons.  Firstly, with the bulk of the drawing already
complete when the offer was made, the time needed to type out data was too
great and secondly the plotting would be on paper and we required it to be on
plastic.  The use would be restricted to
plotting station positions and drawing grids and this is only a very minor part
of the total time needed to draw a cave survey.

Closing a Complex Traverse Network

As recently as 1971, the C.R.G. published a procedure for
closing a complex network which involved closing every possible traverse.  In St. Cuthbert’s Swallet, this would involve
closures of the order of 1030 traverses. This is clearly impossible. Co-operating with the late Mike Luckwill, a procedure was subsequently
worked out for the closure of a complex network.  It is not possible to explain the method
briefly here, but it will be discussed in a future article

Summary

The need for great care when calibrating a compass must
never be underestimated, since errors due to calibration are likely to be the
main source of true position error in a cave. Tabulating co-ordinate changes within a network as described makes it
possible to close a network simply without the aid of a computer.  The results for the St. Cuthbert’s survey
have been found to compare favourably with those obtained by the least squares
method of closure, and greatly eases the location of errors within the network.

 

Caving In The Opera House

by ‘Wig’

When the curtain rises up on Tannhauser, the poor
unsuspecting opera-goer has immediately to watch a cave scene for the whole of
Act 1., though he doesn’t see grotty cavers diving sumps or gleefully sliding
down mud slopes.  However, many operas
contain cave scenes as part of their story – ranging from Wagner to the light
operas of Handel.  Since all other
aspects of caving are currently being catalogued, I offer the following data
for anyone’s collection.

Bellini

NORMA Act II

Debussy

PELLEAS ET MELISANDE Act 11 Scene
3

Gluck

ORPHEE Acts II and III

Handel

ALCINA Act I

Purcell

DIDO AND AENEAS Act 11 scene 3

Verdi

UN BALLO Act I scene 2

MACBETH Act III

I LOMBARDI ALLA PRIMA CROCIATA
Act 11 scene 2

LA FOPZA DEL DESTINO Act II Scene
2

Wagner

TANHAUSER Act I

SIEGFRIED Acts I and II

DAS RHEINGOLD Scene 3.

As Dr. Johnson once described opera as ‘an exotic and irrational
entertainment’ so this could perhaps also be said of caving!

 

Tackle Story

An up-to-date report on the club
tackle position by Mike Palmer the Tacklemaster.

I thought that some members might appreciate a brief outline
of the present tackle situation; changes already made, and suggestions for the
future.

At present, there is 320ft of ladder and 400ft of in active
use by the club.  The St. Cuthbert’s
store a permanent length of ladders at the request of the St. Cuthbert’s
leaders.  This consists of two standard
20ft ladders and a heavy ladder for the entrance rift.  All this is included in the total length
already stated.

In the reserve store (at my home at present) there is all
the ultra-lightweight ladder, which is maintained mainly for special expeditions
and trips to
Yorkshire and amounts to 160ft of
useable ladder.  There is also an
additional 90ft of standard ladder, which makes the total length of reserve
ladder come to 250ft.  Besides this
reserve ladder, a few extra lengths of lifeline are maintained for special
trips and eventual general use as and when replaced by newer ropes.  The total available is 355ft.

Unfortunately, since the retirement of Norman Petty, the
tackle has not received the loving care to which it had become accustomed, and
has deteriorated to the extent that there is now 285ft in need of repair.  This statement is made without any intended
malice towards

Norman‘s
successors since I fully appreciate the task that they had accepted.

Now, what of changes?

The major change affects the splicing of the shackle eyelet
on the ends of ladders.  Hand splicing
will be phased out and replaced by a ‘crimping’ method which consists of a
special alloy ferryle hydraulically pressed around the wire end which
effectively clamps it to the main longitudinal wire of the ladder.  I do not intend here to discuss the technical
pros and cons of the method, since these have been fully thrashed out at
committee meetings – but they could form the basis of another article if
requested or the subject of correspondence in the B.B.  However, it is worth while noting that the

Wessex and
Shepton clubs have been using this method for over ten years without any known
failure in this type of splice.  To avoid
any possible misinterpretation, I would like to stress that the new method only
affects the ladder eyelets where the ‘C’ links are fixed, and not the securing
of the rungs, which will still be fixed by the taper pin method.

Another intended change will be the introduction of blue
anodised alloy identification sleeves between the two end rungs at each end of
the ladder.  The main reason for this
change is that the present method of identification by means of resin soaked
glass fibre tape requires frequent replacement. The anodised tubes should last for years and can be renewed when
repairing tackle.

A change that is already in operation is the use of BLACK
MARKER sleeves, along with the customary club marker, for DIGGING ROPES.  This has been introduced and I particularly
wish to stress this point to indicate the difference between digging ropes and
lifelines, because on several occasions I have noted that digging ropes have
been used as lifelines – with obvious consequences should an accident occur.

I should like to stress, particularly to new members, that
all lifelines have a BRASS or COPPER ring at each end with a rope reference
number and the club initials stamped on it. Unless the rope is identified in this manner, it should not used as a
lifeline.

New notices have been pinned up in the tackle store to
assist in the correct stowage of caving and digging tackle.  Other notices have been put up to act as
simple reminders to pay tackle fees where appropriate, to fill in log books
and, most important of all, to clean the tackle after use.  I have, on several weekends, had to wash
tackle that has been put away by members after caving trips, because of the
filthy muddy state in which it has been left. Please help each other by cleaning all your tackle after a caving trip.

Whilst on the subject of tackle care, there are different
opinions in the club on whether it is best to fold or roll ladders for carrying
purposes.  I personally have no
preference, but would point out that on no account must any method used to cause
twisting or sharp bending of the wires. It would be interesting to have views on various methods, with the aim
of adopting a specific method for use within the club.

Regarding suggestions for the future, I think that these
should come mainly from you, the members. Please write to me; the committee or preferably the B.B. about any ideas
or criticisms you might have about the club tackle.

One idea that I have is to take the marking of the digging
ropes a stage further by dyeing them completely black in a nylon cold water
dye.  Nigel Taylor’s idea of storing
tackle in the Belfry loft warrants some consideration.  I have heard suggestions that the club ought
to provide ropes for abseiling and I am sure you have lots more, so let’s hear
them!

P.S.  It is intended
to organise one or two ladder building sessions during the spring/summer
months, details of which will be displayed in the Belfry.

 

They sought them here,
They sought them there
They sought those caves
Every blooming where!

With the spring on its way, and
thoughts turning to holidays, “Mr.” Nigel Taylor sends in this account of a
very recent trip to

Tunisia.

The trip took place from the 20th to the 24th of February
this year.

After a long wait and eventual flight, nine Mendip cavers
arrived at the Sarsse (? Ed – I can’t read it very well!)

Palace Hotel,
Tunisia
to begin a three day holiday in the ‘Golden Mediterranean Sunshine’ (which we
never saw) and spend some of the time down Tunisian holes (which we very nearly
never saw!)

Martin Mills, ‘Jesus’ Smith, Bob Craig, Mike Jorden, Alan
Butcher, Martin Webster and organising duo “Kayray” Mansfield made up
the S.M.C.C. party while Nigel Taylor represented the B.E.C. to ensure the
tradition that the B.E.C. gets everywhere!! A misunderstanding concerning a Mr. D.J. lrwin later managed to halt the
entire Tunisian Administration and Immigration system; passport control and
hotel staff!

Anyway, after our safe ensconcement in the bar – whoops!
sorry! – in the hotel, we ventured forth on the first day to look at the
catacombs of Sarsse – a maze of five miles of tunnels, of which we saw a
hundred and fifty feet complete with a Balch’s Dependable Illuminant thrown in
– all for a small sum – and watch your pocket as you go my boys!

After such an intrepid adventure, we left the Milch-daubed
Kittycombs, where the hole cats were buried and returned to the hotel to set
about renting two Peugot 404’s for our travels in

Tunisia.  That evening was spent celebrating Nigel’s
21st birthday (what – again! Ed) which went on long past 2100 hours.

The Thursday broke (as did the heavens) and the party went
beetling into the hills around Kirowan and much time was spent looking for the
route to a Roman temple nearby which we were told could be found the ‘Cave of
the phantom horse’.  Upon asking a
policeman, after the preliminary shaking of hands, he jumped into the leading
car and off we went!

After a couple of hour’s hill walking, a large hole was
sighted high up in the limestone bluff to the right of a scree and boulder
run.  Soon, spurred on by this, we came
upon a large solutional development some 30ft wide and 45ft deep set back
against a rock buttress with inlet tubes in the back wall all leading upwards
and choking down.  One largeish passage
leads to the right and above the pit and is used as a shelter by both birds and
a friendly passing shepherd in bad weather, whom we met.  He knew, as far as I could tell, of no other
caves nor had seen the like of us in his many years and disappeared
despairingly as Milch made a hairy gully slab climb to look at a high level
passage he had spotted further up the scree slope.

But of the ‘Caves of the phantom horse’ there was no sign
except a resurgence chamber slightly to to right of the ‘

Temple of the waters’ and at the same
altitude, which we found on our descent from the ridge.

At the top of the gully was an excellent view scanning a
vast area of the Kirwan range and plateau lands. A mine working was found on
the easier land on the other side of the scarp face.

As time, unlike us, was not prepared to stand still, we made
our descent of the scarp face gully and rejoined our jubilant Tunisian guide
eager to show us the temple and to sell off part of it for £1 per little
lump.  On our showing he’ll never be a
wealthy man.  Yet one interesting point
was noted by Ray Mansfield.  The guide
sported a C.T.S. tie presumably their official organisational body.

On the Friday, a mammoth drive of over 250 miles was made
and much time was spent on the discovery of a square kilometre of pseudo-karst
scenery, made up of water- and wind eroded sandstone, in which lay vadose
canyons up to 30ft deep with large pots and pools which were all bone dry at
the time of our visit.

Later on during the day, many small rock shelters were
noticed as we traversed the mountain ranges. Our travels were interspersed with
comments from Butch like, “This looks like

Iceland if you took away
everything”, and Nigel’s imperialistic waves to astonished but friendly natives
upon whom he bestowed his magnificence!

All in all, a very interesting and enjoyable time was had by
all, except by ‘Jesus’ who couldn’t find a pub that sold Newcastle Brown, nor
any C.R.G. members ready to rise to his B.S.A. bait!

On Saturday, much haggling was done in the ‘
Medina‘
– the old walled town of

Sarsse,
before we were whirled away to bake inside Monastir International Airport
Terminal for 4 hours for a French-delayed aircraft.  When we eventually boarded, we had another
hour’s delay and were then forced to fly to
Italy
where we couldn’t land due to congestion and then made a dash to

Stuttgart for a
refuelling stop, leaping in before three aircraft already waiting to land.

Seven hours after take-off from Tunisia, we arrived in
Birmingham, and in Butch’s car made the Hunters in an hour and twenty minutes
exactly, getting there at five minutes past eleven for a pint and a last drink
with the emigrating Wessex Hut Warden Greg Pickford, who, at the time you may
be reading this, should be well on his way to New Zealand and virgin caves.

Editor’s Note: Not virgin – the B.E.C. has been there
already.

Editor’s other note: There appears to be some doubt as to
the exact part (if any) played by Mr. Irwin in the account by Mr. Taylor.  According to Mr. Irwin, his name has no
connection at all with the story you have just read and should therefore be
removed.  According to Mr. Taylor, I was
not supposed to alter a word from those he wrote.  Since both these gentlemen uttered vague
threats should I fail to comply with their instructions and being a natural
coward (the yellow streak down my back is available for inspection at any
committee meeting!)  I have carried out
little judicious editing from the original which, given luck, should please
nobody!

 

Library List

A club library list has been produced and placed on sale at
the Belfry for members to purchase at 10p each (p.& p. 5p).   It will prove of value to members both
regular at the Belfry and those not so regular and living off Mendip.  In 12 pages o quarto it lists all books,
periodicals and the like that are held in the library and is up-to-date to
September 1972.  For those not able to
visit the library, books and periodicals may be sent through the post – postage
and the necessary insurance to be covered by the borrower except for some rare
items which are not lent out.  Those
wishing to borrow by post should contact Dave Irwin, at Townsend Cottage (see
front of B.B.)  Will members note that
all items are on loan for ONE MONTH only. Several members have had books out for much longer periods and it would
be appreciated if they would return the items as soon as possible as it will
save me having to write to them individually.

Dave Irwin.

An Amendment to ‘Climbing in Black Rock Quarry’

I would like to thank Alan Tringham for the boost to my ego
in connection with the new climbs at Weston-in-Gordano; described in last
November’s B.B.  He has not got his facts
quite right.

The Phantom Groper was climbed by N. Jago and D. Targett and
the so-called

Central Slab Route
is, in fact, called the Stripper (V.S.) and not mild V.S. as reported.  This was also climbed by D. Targett and N.
Jago.  Unfortunately, Alan Left out the
best route in the quarry.  This is
Vanishing Tattoo (H.S.A2). The route takes the middle of the red wall using
bolts, free moves and hard pegging.  This
was put up by N. Jago, D. Targett and G.E. Oaten.

G.E. Oaten.

Members Addresses

M.T. Dorp,

4 Manilla Rd,
Clifton
,

Bristol 8.
R. Ellinor,

3 Chipperfield Rd,
Kingswood,

Bristol
BS5 4DP.
S.H.Grime, Shenavall,

62 Souter
Drive, Holm Mains,
Inverness.
G.
Marshall, 29 Stonehill, Hanham,
Bristol BS15 3HP.
P.B.
Marshall,

43 Horton St, Frome,

Somerset.
I.J. Rees,

182 Newbridge Rd,
St. Annes,

Bristol
BS4 4DS.
Mr. & Mrs. R.S. Toms, 89 Apple Grove,

Enfield,
Middlesex.

A REMINDER THAT SUBS ARE NOW DUE.  THE ORDINARY RATE OF MEMBERS ANNUAL
SUBSCRIPTION IS NOW £2. 50, PAY BOB

 

The S.M.D.T. in
Yorkshire

A
short account by D.L. Stuckey

The Dowber Gill stream sinks in its bed a few feet from a
steel and concrete monument to man’s engineering skills.  Via this climbing frame of an entrance shaft,
four B.E.C. and one W.C.C. members entered Providence Pot.  At the foot of the shaft, a short crawl
brought contact with a guide wire, the other end of which was found 2,000 feet
away after a confusing sequence of mud chambers; oozy crawls and short climbs,
all of which led to Dowber Gill Passage.

Here, the stream, last seen on the surface but now under the
firm influence of the local fault, makes a beeline for

Dow
Cave
nearly a mile away.  The caver’s route is
anything but a bee-line, as it involves high level chambers; traverses, and
well-scalloped stream passages.  The
continuous changes in level, plus the distance involved, adds up to some
strenuous caving before entering the sizeable passages of

Dow
Cave.

The party of D. Turner; D. Irwin; M. Taylor; G. Pickford and
D. Stuckey required five and a half hours to complete the through trip.  For general guidelines I would refer you to
Pennine Underground and/or Northern Caves Volume 1.  A more detailed and colourful account appears
in David Reap’s book ‘Potholing Beneath the Northern Pennines’.  For Mendip men, the trip is bit of a
collector’s piece and once done, it’s done!

Publications News

A review of what is coming out in
the near future, by Dave Irwin.

A trend that has become apparent in the last couple of years
is the question “What is new in the publications pipeline?”  To put questioners at ease, here are a few
notes on what to expect to see published during the next few months.

Caving Report No 14 –
Balagueres 1970 – by Roy Bennett.

Though long overdue, it is of considerable interest.  This report covers the caves that were
visited by the B.E.C, in this little-known area of the
Pyrenees.  Available March/April 1973.  Price about 25p.

Caving Report No 17 –
A Burrington Atlas – by D. Irwin, C. Howell and D. Stuckey.

A collection of surveys of all the caves associated with
Burrington.  Includes new surveys of
Sidcot; Foxes; Milliars Quarry Cave; Rod’s; Tunnel; Whitcombe’s; Barren;
Nameless; Elephant; Toad; Frog; Drunkards and many others.  Also included are surveys of Goatchurch; East
Twin; Reads and Avelines that are already available through the survey scheme
and adapted for this publication. Background notes on each site are given. Available April 1973, price about 40p. DEMAND FOR THIS PUBLICATION IS ALREADY VERY GREAT so members who want a
copy should get in touch with Chris Howell NOW as numbers to be printed are
obviously limited.  At the moment, we
have firm bookings for over 120 copies.

Caving Report No 13 –
St. Cuthbert’s Swallet – Cerberus; Maypole; September and Long Chamber Series.

Work is almost complete and these will be published under a
single cover.  Available about May/June
1963.  Price about 40p

Drunkard’s Hole, Rod’s Pot and Sidcot will be available as
separate surveys during the course of the next few months.  Drunkard’s at the printers now.  Price for each 10p.

Work has already commenced on another atlas – that of the
Caves of
Western Mendip.  If the Burrington project is a success, this
too will be published as a caving report.

Those B.E.C. Caving Logs that we have are being edited and
published as a series of Caving Reports. Members interested in obtaining copies (and there are some dating back
to 1944) should let Dave Irwin know, so that numbers required can be estimated.

 

Yet Another Report on a
North Wales Trip

by G.E. Oaten.

The weekend of the 26th January saw the exodus of a few
B.E.C. members to the Promised Land – Snowdonia,
North
Wales.  After hours spent in
sharpening ice axes and crampons, we were somewhat dismayed when the weather
forecast promised us mild, wet conditions.

After the uneventful trip, Roy Marshall, Derek Targett,
Nigel Jago and myself met up with Phil Kingston and Roy and Joan Bennett on the
Saturday morning and made our way to the

Ogwen
Valley.
Unknown to us at the time, Alan Tringham and Pete Sutton were at Tremadoc
climbing Princess (280′ H.S.)

Upon reaching Lyn Ogwen, we made the ascent to the summit of
Tryfan by the North Ridge.  We then made
our way to Glyder Fach via one or two small patches of soft snow.  We were greeted at the top by strong winds
and poor visibility.  After a short rest
we headed for Glyder Fawr, losing height quickly to gain access to
Llyn-y-Cwm.  Roy Bennett and Phil left us
here to return to Ogwen via the Devil’s Kitchen.  Nigel, Derek and I continued on our way on a
compass bearing that took us down into Nant Peris in the

Llanberis
Pass,
a walk of half a mile brought us back to the campsite.

After we had cooked a cordon bleu meal, we made our way to
the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel, where we spent a pleasant evening in the Everest Room
supping ale and listening to the music of two guitarists.  We arose late on the Sunday morning with an
assortment of thick heads.  In this
delicate condition, we were only up to a short walk and a stroll around the
various climbing shops.  After this, we
took our leave of the district and headed back towards

Bristol.

Sofa
Rugby

A short description of this new
Mendip sport by the editor.

It is not often we get the opportunity to report to our
members of the existence of a brand-new sport; but such is our welcome task at
present.

Sofa
Rugby is played
indoors, in a room preferably of stoat construction.  The two teams scrum down on each side of the
sofa, the object being to ram the opposing team hard against one wall –
preferably grinding them between wall and sofa, or alternatively crushing them
between sofa and floor.

The first game was played at the Shepton Hut between teams
from the

Wessex
and Shepton.  As a result of this, the
B.E.C. decided on away matches only, and the games are now played at Upper
Pitts, the visiting team providing the actual sofa; settee, Chaise Lounge or
what you will.

It was thus that I found myself travelling from the Hunters
to Upper Pitts on fateful Saturday night; passing en route a sofa, which was
being carried from the Belfry to the ‘Harena’ by suitable drunken
stalwarts.  I must admit that, in these
somewhat dull and conformist days, the sight of a sofa with legs, staggering
along the road, gladdened my soul and took me back to the days when almost
anything could happen on Mendip and usually did.

On arrival at Upper Pitts, the sofa was manoeuvred into the
living room, and the teams lined up. What follows is a highly biased account of the subsequent proceedings.

On the first scrum down, the B. E. C. team pushed gallantly
but, owing to the fact that a large number of Wessex craftily joined in after
all the B.E.C.’s heads were down, our team got pushed against the wall.  On the second scrum a similar thing happened,
and I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and watched the
third from the touchline.  This was
enlivened by the efforts of our scrum half (Tim Large) who nobly got round the
back of the opponents side and pulled off as many of the extra players as he
could.  Even so, we were still
beaten.  The average sofa only lasts for
about three scrums, and this one was then ceremonially burned outside.  It is a rough game and there are always
casualties.  In my case, this took the
form of a bruised rib, which is still a trifle painful.  All the same, a good game and an interesting
addition to the Mendip scene while the supply of sofas lasts!

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

DON’T FORGET YOUR SUB
– £2.50. PAY BOB BAGSHAW.

Winemaking

“Sett” proposes to run a course on the above
subject at the Belfry, following the success of his lectures to date.  Cost for the course will be £1 or 20p per
lecture (to Belfry funds.)  Dates and
titles for the first four are as follows:-

24th March        Equipment
and fermentation.

31st March        Flavours and recipes.

14th April          Cleanliness and disinfecting.

28th April          Acids; sugars; yeasts etc.

The rest will be announced in due course.  If interested, put your name on the list at
the Belfry or contact Sett at

4
Galmington Lane,
Taunton,

Somerset – or
just turn up.

 

Monthly Crossword – Number 31.

Across:

1. Measured cave passage in
untapped way. (5)
4. Exit direction. (3)
6. Not found in G.B. door, but lower down. (9).
7. Underground feature in Mendip or

London.
(4)
8. Flat object in cave discovery. (4)
10. Last war
St.? Try another formation.(5,4)
12. Distressing call. (1,1,1)
13. Describes rift or chamber in Longwood. (5)

Down:

1. European mountain becomes a
friend. (3)
2. Stub cert for this cave. (9)
3. Browne’s Hole passage name. (4)
4. Tube to lie in Cuthbert’s. (9)
5. Poisonous word (5)
7. Jobs. (5)
9. Wig’s drink? (4)
11. Lead this once on Mendip. (3)

Solution to Last Month’s Crossword