A STALAGMITE FALL, GOUGH'S CAVE, CHEDDAR.
Photo by M. Martel.
In the fork between the main passage and this big cavern is a large irregular opening, with disorderly blocks of Limestone heaped up on its floor. We picked our way across these, and at a height of 40 feet reached the edge of an abrupt rock some four yards high. We dropped over on to an earthy floor, and going a little farther found ourselves in a domical chamber with three low exits. First of all exploring that on our left, we had a look at a slanting shaft filled with a "ruckle" of big shattered blocks wedged insecurely, above which are two small chambers incrusted with stalagmite, but with no apparent exit. We climbed down again, and tried the third opening. It led through a series of caves and narrow clefts into a larger chamber, all maintaining the same easterly direction, and there we found two possible ways onward. The first of these brought us in a few moments to the brink of a steep cliff, which seemed to be one wall of a considerable cavern. We preferred to wait for the limelight before venturing to let a man down into this unknown abyss, and meanwhile to examine the other passage. A few minutes' crawling brought us to a great pit, which sounded very deep when we threw in some fragments of rock. Apparently it was the chasm that had been described to us as 300 feet deep by one of our guides who had descended part of the way. We approached the edge with respect, and as a preliminary step let down a rope ladder into the upper part, which is strangely twisted. At a depth of 20 feet I found a possible landing-place; the second man joined me, and by dint of careful manœuvring the third got down to the same spot. With an 80-foot rope tied on, I now explored the next section of the chasm, and was delighted to find that there was just enough rope to reach a slope of big rocks at the bottom. A little more scrambling brought me into a vast chamber, the floor of which was piled up with enormous blocks, while the lowest part seemed to offer two possible routes onwards. One of these proved to be a mere hollow, but the other was evidently the channel of a stream, and apparently led onwards into further caves. But the roof was extremely low, and it was quite impossible to wriggle through. One of my companions, who had now joined me, also failed to squeeze through the opening, and we decided to leave it until the hole could be enlarged with pick and shovel. The alleged 300 feet was found by aneroid to be exactly 100 feet. In a corner of this lofty cavern was a steep fissure which seemed to be well worth exploring. The bottom half of it was completely walled in by an enormous flake of Limestone that had come down from the roof, and looked as if a touch would send it tumbling on the heaps of rock at the bottom of the cave. We scrambled up the fissure at the back of this, and reached a promising gallery; but, to our disgust, this was entirely blocked up with clay and mud at the top, and it was impossible to proceed. Gaining the summit of the huge Limestone flake, we lit up the cave with magnesium wire, and were deeply impressed by its height and the grandeur of the shattered crags bristling on walls, roof, and floor. Everything was black, save one long, dripping cascade of stalagmite on the wall over against us; its unsullied whiteness shone weirdly out of the gloom as the fierce light fell on it. Just at that moment voices were heard, and from a rent in the rocky wall in front the intolerable beam of the searchlight came right in our faces. The remainder of the party had followed us up, and reached the spot where we had first looked over into the deep chasm. Revealed in all its extent by this penetrating light, the cave reminded us strongly of the enormous chamber that we had explored a few months earlier in the lowest part of the Blue John Mine in Derbyshire. On the way back one of the acetylene lamps fell down the pit by which we had entered, and was completely smashed. With no other mishap, we made our way through the tortuous passages and amongst the chaos of tumbled rock masses back to the cavern under "Solomon's Temple."
Two of us explored the openings above "St. Paul's" a few days later. A 30-foot ladder was placed against the corner of the stalagmite fall, and a yard or two of scrambling took us to the top. On the left was an ascending vault, with openings to right and left. Taking the latter to begin with, we found it gradually trend downhill and dwindle away into a series of holes scarcely big enough to let a human body pass. Squeezing through with a good deal of trouble, I reached a flattish cave with a floor of rock and stalagmite all cracked and fissured. The whole of this part seemed to have been shivered by some large movement of the rocky strata. One of the fissures gave entrance to a passage underneath the floor; but this speedily narrowed, and when it was impossible to get farther I found myself right underneath my companion, who was holding my rope and paying it out as I advanced from his original position in the outer passage. No other exit being discoverable on this side, we crossed to the passage on the right, and after a few yards of crawling under a depressed roof we found ourselves on the largest expanse of stalagmite either of us had ever met with. It had flowed down from fissures high up on our left and spread over a wide, rocky slope; it had then contracted and poured over a cliff immediately on our right. We still kept the rope taut, and moved about cautiously, for the crystalline floor was extremely slippery, and the cliff immediately beneath us would have made the slightest accident serious. A broad flat roof of rock overhung the floor of stalagmite closely, and was covered with thin pipes and reeds of stalactite. We soon ascertained that we had returned by a different route to the crown of the petrified cascade in "St. Paul's," although a craggy partition separated us from our route up the ladder. We explored the edges of this huge surface of stalagmite, which we could not measure, having no better light to guide us than a few tapers, but which could not be much less than 100 feet wide. Where the deposits came down through crevices at the top they had settled in jewelled and diapered masses of the most fantastic patterns. Our situation was, however, too precarious for lingering in this strange spot, and without another man to back one up it was impossible to explore the hole at the top. We gave up our quest reluctantly and returned towards our ladder, incrusted from head to foot with the thick, plastic clay. A convenient knob of stalagmite enabled us to give the rope a hitch whilst we scrambled down to the top of our ladder.
One other passage from the main cavern was explored, with a curious cluster of vertical cavities near its extremity. The end of the passage was coated in every direction with tinted deposits, among which we noticed beautiful specimens of the branching stalactites that were called anemolites by the explorers of the Blue John caverns, who thought they had acquired their abnormal shapes through the irregularity of evaporation caused by air currents. I climbed 30 or 40 feet up one of the openings in the roof, whilst Dr. Sheldon explored another. At the top we found no exits big enough to afford a man passage. A wider cavity in the middle of the roof looked more promising. A ladder was adjusted, but fell short; but my companion, with considerable risk of a dangerous fall, clambered up to the rocky slope and over the piles of jagged blocks that well-nigh filled it. This too failed to afford us a passage, and the daring climber had great difficulty in coming down, being forced to thread the rope and let himself down on it to the ladder. During the operation a flake of rock came hurtling down and hit the ladder, but luckily did nothing worse than smash a rung. These cavities in the roof were extremely interesting, and no doubt are connected together and have a common origin in some neighbouring fissure or waterway.