The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-03-30
ROPE LADDER RESEARCHES.
A Sort of Cave Exploration That Re
Qutres q Good Deal of Muscle
and Courage.

Under the inspiration OF r. A. Martel.
who is now the most famous of cave
explorers. the lovers of this art of re-
search are developing great enthusiasm
for diving into the depths OF the earth.
Within the past two years Mr.. Martel,
who has done far more than any other
man to find out all about the many
caves of France, has been engaged in
subterrapean explorations in Algeria
and England; and the crowd of cave
hunters who have followed his ex-
ample and methods are diving into
every underground opening they can
find, and have brought to light scores
of caverns in the limestone regions of
France. They have formed the Societe
de Speleolgie and publish the results
of their underground wanderings in
the quarterly magazine, Spelunca,
which. from cover to cover. contains
nothing that does not relate to caves.
Not a few of the French caves show no
external evidence of their existence
save hole in the level surface of the
ground, often so small that a man could
not possibly fall through it, and ffe-
quently so well concealed in the under
growth that it has never been discov-
cred until quite recently. \ peculiar
ity of many of these openings is that
instead of giving access to slope down
which the explorer may make his way,
as our Mammoth cave. there is moth
ing but air beneath them. and one
might drop plumb line through the
opening for hundreds of feet before
it would touch the floor of the cave,
IT takes good deal of grit and the
steadiest of nerves to launch ones sell
at the end of rope into these black
abysses.
There are two ways of making this
gloomy trip, and one of them requires
not only nerve. but an unusual amount
of physical strength. In this case the
explorer depends almost wholly upon
himself in making both the descent and
the ascent. In the other the muscle OF
his comrades is called into service to
lower and raise him, and the exploit
does not involve so much fatigue. II
the man intends to depend upon his
own muscles he requires rope ladder
and this appliance is part of the equip
ment of every cave hunter who expects
to investigate any of this class of open
ings. The distance from the opening
10 the bottom is first ascertained by
means of plummet line and then the
rope ladder is lowered. and after Sc
curely fastening it at the upper end the
explorer is ready for business.
His torch is fastened to his headgea1
and cannot easily be displaced. Two
OF three trusty comrades remain at the
surface to attend to the orders they
may receive from the explorer. At
tached to his waist is little telcphon,
ccrd, and the duty OF one of the meI
is to receive the messages over it ant
pay out the cord or take in the slack
as The circumstances require. The tel
ephone cord is usually 30 or 40 fee
longer than the ladder, which is rarel,
over $50 feet in length. 1t has beer
found that in almost all cases thi!
length of ladder is sufficient to lane
the explorer on the floor of the cavern
It is not SO very difficult to descend
this ladder, but it certainly require!
the strength of an athlete 10 accom-
plish the other feat of perpendicular
stair climbing Oil the swaying rope
Frequent rests are necessary, and some
times the rope rests for little wa,
against the wall OF the abyss, or shell
| is found on which the explorer SIT
down to regain his breath.
The other method Of making the de
| scent is far easier for the explorer. HI
is seated at the end of the rope, which
is slowly lowered by his comrades. Il
| one hand he holds his lantern, Will
he manages the telephone transmftte
with the other. There is not much ia
| tigue, but, strange as it may seem
most cave explorers appear to prefe
to use the ladder, though sometime
they are over an hour in ascending t,
| the surface.
The successful cave explorer nova
| days is usually able to retrace his step
in the dark recesses which he is ex
ploring, and it very seldom occurs tina
one of them is not able to return with
out bIunder. This is more than on
visitor in thousand to Luray cave j
able to do. The guide there usual
| gives anyone who wants the privileg
a chance to conduct the party back t
the entrance, and usually after thre
or four turns in the right direction tn
pilot branches off on some path tina
would lead him hopelessly astray if tn
guide did not put him again on tn
right road.-N. Y. Sun.
| Catamarau.