Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-07

erosive and chemical action dig out and
shape the limestone caverns
Martel leads quite caravan into the field
when he starts on his explorations. As his
party drove into a hamlet one day the as
tonished natives asked if circus had come
to town. Ten TO 15 men usually take part in
the work, and with the wagon train loaded
with the exploring and camping outfit and
provisions, including milch goats and coops
of poultry, they are almost as impressive in
appearance as a Central African expedition.
As the party often plunges into the mount
aims, many miles from all sources of sup
plies, it is necessary to carry a large guam
tity of provisions. MartePs exploring
equipment includes an electric telephone.
No vertical descent is possible without this
appliance, for at depth of 80 feet it is
impossible to distinguish words on account
of the vocal reverberationA
In the Sauveterre Cave.
One picture here shows Martel as his
comrades are lowering him into the abyss of
inky blackness in the Sauveterre cave. Two
lines connect him with his friends, and one
of them is his telephone wire which he
needed long before he had fathomed the
mysteries of that frightful precipice.
He carries from one to three boats, that
can be taken apart, packed in small space
and put together in Is minutes; flash lights
for photographing, electrical apparatus,
1,500 feet of rope of the size used by
gymnasts, $50 feet of rope ladder in sections
but attschable, a wooden ladder % feet long,
divisible into four parts, stesrine candles
about two inches thick with large wicks,
tinder to kindle fires if the matches become
damp, hunting horns and whistles for sig
mailing, white paint to mark routes of in
| gress and decrease the danger of getting lost
ir,f fhn Aa
for mapping purposes, and hammers, pick
axes and dynamite for clearing passagea
Dynamite, however, is used with extreme
caution, and only as last resort in OPEN
ing passageways.
Man in the Age of Stone.
While Martel's scientific work has been
chiefly confined to the study of subterranean
Mythology and the formation of caves, it
has been his good fortune to throw valuable
light upon question relating to prehistoric
man, and not few paleontologists believe
that his discoveries in the cave of Nabrigas
have decided controversy that has been
waging for so years. Many scholars have
long maintained that there was no convinc-
ing proof of the existence of man in the age
Of the great cave bear, and also that there
was no proof that man in the stone age had
even rudimentary notions of pottery max
| ing.
Even the find of Prof Jolly in 1885 of
large fragments of pottery mingled with the
bones of the cave bear, did not convert the
| sceptics. But Martel has found in the cave
of Nabrigas, where they had been preserved
for uncounted centuries under a stratum of
rock, part of a human jaw, eight other
fragments of human skulls, and large piece
of pottery in immediate contact with the re-
mainy OF two cave bears. The double prob
lem Of quatefnary man and of the paleolithic
potters seems to be solved beyond further
dispute, for Marters discovery proves the
existence of man in the Lczere at the epoch
of the great cave bear, and the knowledge
OF pottery at the same epoch.
The Austrians Making II a Study.
While Martel is now regarded as the
leading spirit in cave exploration, the
Austrians are beginning to give great at
tention to this study, and for several years
a number of naturalists and Alpinists of
Trieste have been carrying on systematic
in vestigations In the great cave region of
the Karst, east Of that city. They are Civ
ing particular attention to underground