Evening star., 1939-11-16
D. {. Group Explores
Cave Believed Rival
Of Mammoth
SpeIeoIoeists Descend
Into 180-Foot Abyss to
Study Huge Cavern

CONTINUED From First Page)
water supplies that alter them
through the centuries, their plant
and animal life and other scientific
data.
Organized Last May.
The Washington society was or
ganized last May. It's Is active
members and Is associate members
include number of eminent scien-
lists. Last summer eight caves were
explored and mapped. This was the
first trip to the caves of this region,
and 13 active-very active-members
went along.
Leading the group was the So
ciety's dynamic president, William j.
Stephenson, who in surface life Is
an examiner for the Patent Office.
Mr.. Stephenson is an engineer, as
well as a lawyer, and his ability to
compute angles and to read the
dimension-recording instruments -
most of which the society devised
itself, since there were few cave
exploring devices on the markets.
valuable. At his elbow most of the
time was Robert Coates of the Geo.
logical Survey, from whom engineer
ing formulae issue as facilely as the
multiplication table.
The others in the crowd" follow
q wide variety of occupations when
they are not invading the privacy
of caves. But most of them have
scholarly inclinations. Several wear
various graduate degrees lightly.
There was one woman, and she
went into Schoolhouse Cave as far
as any one else, except the four
who climbed over the precipice into
the unknown. She had come along
with her husband, William j.
Schlichtig, architect and craftsman.
Unload Equipment.
Perhaps this scientific interest
this concern with the structure Of
caves-explains the implacable will
of those fellows. 1t is true that
some men have passion for stamps
and others for the bass horn; that
some go into ecStaSies over medieval
armor, and others over a home work
shop. But the hobby of cave-prying
must require something special, aside
from the natural desire to see around
the bend, because it's combination
of mountain scaling, gymnastics,
mining, hiking through jungles and
playing about the edges of chasms
blindfold.
This party, swollen to Is by the
arrival of reporter and photogra-
pher from The Star, assembled at
the mouth of Schoolhouse Cave early
In the afternoon. The speleologists
began unloading their equipment
from several cars. Scientific cave
men leave as little to chance as
possible. It's just as well-otherwise
they'd probably deposit members
permanently here and there along
Stygian labyrinths. AS it is, there's
enough left to the fates, in all con-
science
There were IS feet of rope ladder,
1900 feet of plain rope, a portable
searchight, a field telephone, with
more than 1900 feet of wire; various
short lengths of 2-by-4 timbers,
balls of cord, individual flashlights,
boxes of candles and matches, can
teens Of water for drinking and for
the carbide miners lamps some of
the party wore on their heads. All
this had to be packed in. And was
1t job!
Illustration for Inferno"
Leaving the sunlit mountains, with
their gorgeous autumn coloring, we
entered a ravine that slopes abruptly
from the rough back-country road
A twist to the left and the entrance
to Schoolhouse gaped prodigiously
descending blackly. 1t looked like
Doree illustration for Dante's
Inferno"
When we got inside we were
warned to take it easy. The throat
of the cavern sloped steeply, narrow
ing gradually. Flashlights glowing
the party climbed down gingerly
tugging the heavy equipment. At
the bottom there was sharp turn
to the right, then an upward incline
sleeper than the beginning. Care
fully the group toiled upward, STEP
ping from rock to rock, testing each
footing before trusting it. A fall
wouldn't have done anybody any
good. The Pickering lights threw
fantastic shadows about the grim
walls.
At last we were close to the root
of the entrance cavern. The route
lay to our left, around a hairpin
turn, across which native explorers
had thrown sapling. We clung to
the sapling, not more than two at
a time, and reached the easier going
of a narrow, low-ceilinged passage
Mr.. Stephenson estimated the down.
ward slope at the entrance at 81
degrees and the one we had just
climbed at 38 degrees.
Bats Clung to Roof.
The passage hugging the roof OF
the cave went on and on. Sometimes
you could stand. Sometimes you hao
to stoop far over. Bats chung to the
roof. Disturbed by the lights, they
began spreading their wings ano
darting among us.
The ceiling rose, and we coulc
90 along more rapidly, though some
of the men tugging the heavier
things had to stop frequently anc
rest. Then the corridor widened
but the ceiling lowered, and yor
could not stand comfortably.
There was an abrupt halt. We
seemed to have been travelling fol
hours. Actually we had gone only
about 300 feet from the entrance
But this was as far as anybody hac
ever been.
We had come to the jumping of
place. Our passage narrowed aheac
until it merged with the wall. But
there was a short drop below, about
13 feet, to another ledge and thi.
was the actual end of previous ex'
plorations.
Beyond the lower shelf was 6
black hole. What lay within it, how
deep 1t was no one knew Th(