Modern Cavemen

更新：2023-11-22

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[00:01.46]Lesson 42
[00:03.56]Modern cavemen
[00:11.73]With what does the writer compare the Gouffre Berger?
[00:18.32]Cave exploration, or pot-holing, as it has come to be known, is a relatively new sport.
[00:25.23]Perhaps it is the desire for solitude or the chance of making an unexpected discovery that lures people down to the depths of the earth.
[00:35.62]It is impossible to give a satisfactory explanation for a pot-holer's motives.
[00:41.30]For him, caves have the same peculiar fascination which high mountains have for the climber.
[00:47.84]They arouse instincts which can only be dimly understood.
[00:53.15]Exploring really deep caves is not a task for the Sunday afternoon rambler.
[00:59.33]Such undertakings require the precise planning and foresight of military operations
[01:06.19]It can take as long as eight days to rig up rope ladders and to establish supply bases before a descent can be made into a very deep cave.
[01:17.61]Precautions of this sort are necessary,
[01:20.72]for it is impossible to foretell the exact nature of the difficulties which will confront the pot-holer.
[01:27.95]The deepest known cave in the world is the Gouffre Berger near Grenoble.
[01:33.83]It extends to a depth of 3, 723 feet.
[01:38.99]This immense chasm has been formed by an underground stream which has tunnelled a course through a flaw in the rocks.
[01:47.73]The entrance to the cave is on a plateau in the Dauphine Alps.
[01:53.04]As it is only six feet across, it is barely noticeable.
[01:57.55]The cave might never have been discovered
[01:59.79]had not the entrance been spotted by the distinguished French pot-holer, Berger.
[02:05.58]Since its discovery, it has become a sort of pot-holers' Everest.
[02:10.62]Though a number of descents have been made, much of it still remains to be explored.
[02:16.67]A team of pot-holers recently went down the Gouffre Berger.
[02:21.19]After entering the narrow gap on the plateau,
[02:24.19]they climbed down the steep sides of the cave until they came to a narrow corridor.
[02:30.12]They had to edge their way along this,
[02:33.06]sometimes wading across shallow streams, or swimming across deep pools.
[02:38.92]Suddenly they came to a waterfall which dropped into an underground lake at the bottom of the cave.
[02:46.31]They plunged into the lake,
[02:48.28]and after loading their gear on an inflatable rubber dinghy, let the current carry them to the other side.
[02:56.96]To protect themselves from the icy water, they had to wear special rubber suits.
[03:02.46]At the far end of the lake, they came to huge piles of rubble which had been washed up by the water.
[03:08.71]In this part of the cave, they could hear an insistent booming sound
[03:13.93]which they found was caused by a small waterspout shooting down into a pool from the roof of the cave.
[03:21.03]Squeezing through a cleft in the rocks,
[03:23.62]the pot-holers arrived at an enormous cavern, the size of a huge concert hall.
[03:30.09]After switching on powerful arc lights,
[03:32.69]they saw great stalagmites--some of them over forty feet high--rising up like tree-trunks to meet the stalactites suspended from the roof.
[03:43.40]Round about, piles of limestone glistened in all the colours of rainbow.
[03:49.04]In the eerie silence of the cavern,
[03:51.43]the only sound that could be heard was made by water which dripped continuously from the high dome above them.