Waters and Glaciers

Abstract

UNDERGROUND waters play a considerable part in recent researches on French caves (Spelunca, tome vii., 1907–8, Nos. 47–52). M. Fournier's observations in the Jura (Nos. 47 and 50) are largely concerned with following out the courses of streams that are used for household purposes. He agrees with M. Martel that springs may be regarded with suspicion when their temperature varies by even 1° C. from that of water in the same region which is known to come from considerable depths. A number of caves in various levels of Jurassic limestone are drawn in plan and section, and the continuity of certain streams has been proved by the use of fiuorescein. As an example of the practical results of such, researches, it may be mentioned that the village of Mouchard, on the west flank of the range, was found to be utilising an already contaminated water, which ran away out of the public fountain and reappeared as the main supply of Pagnoz, a hamlet on the Salins road. The author complains that it is hard to move local authorities; but, if Mouchard now becomes grateful, Pagnoz may be doubly so. Messrs. Albert and Alexandre Mary (No. 48) describe the artificial excavations in the chalk at Saint-Martin, Oise, and urge that the movement of water in chalk is controlled by fissures, which are in some cases fault-planes, and not by a general porosity of the rock. Where the chalk is fractured on a small scale, as in the Upper Senonian, owing to the yielding character of a particular series of beds, the water flows along the abundant and delicate crevices; where, however, there are only coarser joints, these become the prominent and effective water-ways (p. 13). The caverns in Oise may have been dug out by man as hiding places, but the fissures selected had previously been widened by natural waters. About the twelfth century they became used as quarries. This memoir by MM. Mary concludes with an account of the modifications that took place in certain plants removed by the authors from the outer air to the banks of one of the subterranean lakes. M. Ed. Rahir (No. 51) reports on caves in the Carboniferous Limestone of Belgium; and M. Paul Macey (No. 52) carries us away to Indo-China, and gives a spirited account of rivers tha't penetrate masses of limestone in the province of Gammon, of which he is Governor. His zeal for exploration is not more commendable than his regard for the religious feelings of his subjects. We wonder if all British cave-hunters would have sacrificed a pig and a few fowls before descending a haunted river in a collapsible bamboo canoe. The cheerful description of two days underground on this unknown water-way should satisfy even M. Martel, to whom it is presented. The tunnel of the Nam Hin-Boun, 4000 metres long, is, on the other hand, used as a highway by the natives themselves when the river is low. The basin of Hang Nam-Thieng (vessel of holy water) reminds us of the miraculous stoup attached to an old church in Anglesey; it is about 15 centimetres in diameter, and re-fills itself up to a certain level after water is drawn from it; The French have again allowed the use of its water in ceremonial oaths, according to a practice that had fallen into disuse since the Siamese invasion of 1827.