Chippings
Alpine Club. – Three Ramblers Have Been Elected Members, W. A. Wright, A. B. Roberts, And F. S. Smythe. The November Number Of The Alpine Journal (1926) Will Be The Last Edited By Our Honorary Member, Mr. George Yeld, Who Has Been Editor Since 1896.
Grotta Della Margna (Istria).-The Italians have accomplished the descent of the deepest abyss known and explored. In November, 1924, they reached a depth of 381 metres, but on 24th August, 1925, they were not stopped until they had reached 450 metres (1,476 ft.).
The cavern is situated on the plateau of Istria, at Raspo, 33 kilometres SE. of Trieste, and 9 kilometres N.E. of Pinguente. A new name has been given to it by the explorers, that of Bertarelli, the president of the Italian Touring Club, who was one of the leaders.
An outer hole of 200 ft. is followed by six vertical shafts, the second being 425 ft. deep. During the last expedition a storm caused a frightful torrent to pour into the gulf for three hours. Two assistants were carried away and killed, and the bottom party of eight were hauled out only after two days. (From a communication by M. Martel to La Montagne, April, 1926).
Literary. – C. E. Benson has written a vigorous novel, Miles Ritson, full of stirring action. He has avoided the hackneyed events of Revolution times and preferred an exciting Cumberland incident of the last days of James’s reign. It would be a sporting thing to follow the tracks of Benson’s hero over the Lake Hills in the dark.
Articles by two Y.R.C. men appear in a sumptuous Swiss picture book, Bernese Oberland, by Dr. Charles Urech, now being published.
Miss Bessie Gray, daughter of our first Editor, had two articles in the North Eastern and Scottish Magazine (N.E.R.), January and September, 1925, on climbing in Lakeland. The second describes the fix in which the party found themselves on reaching Eskdale from Scawfell Pike in really bad weather, cut off by Cam Spout Beck and compelled to wade the Esk and the flooded flats beyond.
Three Peak Walk And Others. – In January, 1926, nine Ramblers and a Rucksacker made the Three Peak round from Horton by night. The full moon concealed itself behind clouds and mist, but there was just enough light to show the walls and make path-finding less difficult than people suppose. That the Hull Pot waterfall should have been seen running, a sight new to nearly all, was a remarkable piece of good luck.
Brown and Beetham in September, 1925, starting from Grains o’ th’ Beck, Lunedale, went over Mickle Fell and down to Maize Beck, up Meldon Hall and by Teesdale to Cross Fell, returning over the Dun Fells, Knock Fell and other tops to Little Fell and Grains o’ th’ Beck.
The main ridge of the Coolins was traversed in July, 1924, by Smythe and J. H. B. Bell (S.M.C.) in about 16¼ hours, from Glen Brittle to Sligachan, as others had done.
Frankland and Miss M. Barker in 1926 did the same big round from Scavaig and back in about twenty hours finishing about two in the morning by lantern light, but they included Sgurr na h-Uamha, as Somervell did.
Trains And Buses. – Some Ramblers have had so much practice driving the municipal buses during the general strike that gear changing has grown an entirely automatic habit. Another Rambler writes that the public really had a touching confidence in amateur engine-drivers. He nearly crashed into crossing gates, was derailed by catch-points, and lost half a goods train. Some of us are reminded that, in another strike, a Rambler’s engine was overpowered by its load at the top of a Durham gradient and the train ran back all the way down again.
The Motorage. – Three years have sufficed to cover the whole country with a network of bus services, and to make the Club one of owners of cars and cycles. The degeneracy prophesied does not seem to have set in. In fact on free days men get up earlier in the summer and go further. All night expeditions have become infinitely easier to arrange. And do we not nowadays “live dangerously”
Signals Of Distress. – It has been suggested that men are not as well acquainted as they should be with the signals for use in case of accident, as agreed on by foreign Alpine Clubs.
By night, show a light six times in a minute, wait one minute, repeat six times in a minute and so on. The reply would be to show a light three times in a minute, pause a minute, then repeat. By day, some article of clothing of suitable colour can be swung through a half circle six times in the minute and so on. Sound signals by whistles or even shouts can be used.
Welsh Names. – We read Messrs. Carr and Lister’s Mountains of Snowdonia with much interest, noting that the derivation and correct form of place-names in Wales seems to offer even more difficulty than in England, perhaps because of the influence on writers of the Arthurian legend. We went on to the end with pleasure until we came to the lists of Peaks and Passes, etc,
To each Welsh name is attached an “English significance.” The first set, of peaks, seemed curiously unsatisfactory. One expected here a labour of love by someone to whom the ordinary names of English hill features were music and to whose lips they sprang as he called up the vision of the Welsh hillsides, but one was thrown back to the commonplace of London life, to company again with those to whom a beck or a brook is a streamlet, a gill a ravine, to whom it seems odd the French should call a village Val d’Isère, who can even insult a famous name with Mount Matterhorn. With sadness one turned over and glanced at the next page-“pass of the upper valley,” turned again and read, “hollow of the big cow-house.” We recall the rendering of “Rock of Ages” as “Very hard ancient stone, split in two for my benefit!”
May we beg of Messrs. Carr and Lister that the worst horrors of their renderings shall be removed in later editions and less urbanized “English significances” offered, for the sake of the millions born north of Trent and for the sake of the public to whom their book appeals?
A Hate Against Pot-Holers. – A lecture by the President to the Yorkshire Geological Society, cataloguing recent discoveries, was reported briefly in the press, and somehow annoyed very much the Editor of the Naturalist, the organ of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union. After quoting the report rather oddly, he accused the President of not knowing the meaning of “survey” and “exploration.”
Seaman’s letter pointing out that these words were correctly used was printed, and followed by an ill-tempered outburst. We learnt that pot-holers measure their success by the number of adjectives with which they describe their fun “in the press.” “An actual survey or exploration should have some tangible result, in recent years not a single fact previously unknown seems to have been produced, and certainly errors have been made which prevent progress.” Some amazing statements as to the President quarrelling with the Geological Society followed.
As far as we can discover it must be well over twenty years since any pot-holers have written for the daily press. It is astonishing that a Yorkshire geologist should be so ignorant of pot-holes as to be unable to distinguish between the men who make a sport of exploring them and the exploiters of well advertised show caverns.
We are in good company. Even Martel’s prodigious results in the field were dismissed by another arm-chair critic as those of “a mere stroller in caverns.”
Seaman’s reply and challenge, courteous but devastating, needless to say The Naturalist did not choose to publish.