Book Review
A Pongo Book Review
Caves of Adventure
By Haroun Tazieff
(Hamish Hamilton, 18/6)
I think everyone will remember the accounts in the papers
last summer of the accident in the Grotte Pierre St. Martin in which Marcel
Loubers was killed. This book is written
by one of the members of the party who was in the cave when the accident
happened.
The cave is the deepest in the world, and may well be
imagined from the fact that the entrance shaft is just 1,000 feet, in which
there is one small sloping shelf about 250 feet down. That is quite a start for a cave, but it then
proceeds to blossom out into a series of three vast caverns. The end of these has not been reached, but
when the party had to start back they were about a mile from the bottom of the
shaft and still going strong.
The accident was due to the failure of the bottom clamps on
the winch cable, and Loubens fell about 30 feet. With a great deal of effort they managed to
get the doctor down the shaft but the winch then packed up and 24 hours were
needed for repairs. Lobens died just as
they were ready to start hauling him up and he is buried in the cave. While the winch was being repaired the shaft
was laddered to a depth of 800 feet which was no mean achievement in itself.
As a final episode the winch broke down again with Tazieff
about 250 up from the bottom and he hung there for 4½ hours under a young
waterfall.
Tazieff was the photographer of the expedition, so there are
a number of good pictures illustrating the book.
Please dont get killed in the rush when Ifold announces
that hes bought it.
Pongo
Britain
Underground
(Dalesman Pub.
The successor to Pennine Underground, the scope has been
widened to include
The inclusion of a National Grid Reference is very good as
the descriptions of how to find the caves were sometimes rather lacking and the
stiff cover of the new version should make for durability.
Pongo.
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I am looking forward to Pongos review of British Caving
by members of the Cave Research Group at 35/- which has been seen recently in
a local shop. The dust-cover carries a
picture of Queen
Ed.