CHIPPINGS
RESCUE WORK AND INQUESTS.—All Ramblers should be particular when they come across pot-holing parties to make known what must be done in case of accident :—
Wait till it is known whether the case is slight or serious.
Then make for the nearest telephone or post office and CALL THE SETTLE POLICE. Don’t call Mr. So-and-So.
In the Birkbeck Trench (A. G.) Pot accident the messenger to Settle, 4 p.m., said a man had fallen six feet. Fortunately Mr. Lord with the ten B.S.A. men available took up the stretcher. At 6.15 found the victim in extremis, and after a terrible struggle got him out at 8, the second message reaching Settle at 8.10. The remnant of the exhausted crowd and Mr. Lord carried the dying man in the dark to the foot of Trow Gill, car and doctor at 9.45, about seven hours after the accident, splendid work.
I attended the adjourned inquest, and am simply appalled. These things are trials without the right of addressing the jury, and the background is that of a mountaineering or motor accident. In future THE LEADER OF THE RESCUERS MUST BE REPRESENTED BY A POT-HOLING LAWYER, AND THE OTHERS BY A SEPARATE LAWYER.  It is the rescuers who are tried.
COMPASS VARIATIONS.—Based on the Magnetic Edition of the O.S. Map of England and Wales, one-millionth scale, these are, for the middle of 1948, allowing 10 seconds decrease per year:—Settle, 10¾°; Cheviots, 11°; Snowdon, 11½°; Swansea, 11° ; Greenwich, 9°10′.
Based on the Admiralty chart (North Atlantic) 3775, other places will be:—Ben Nevis, 13°; Edinburgh and Cairngorms, 12°; Lofotens, 2°; Norway (Horungtinder, etc.) 7° to 6° ; Berne, 5°; Munich, Dolomites, 3½°; Pyrenees, 7½° ; Corsica, 4½°.
METRES AND FEET.—The easy and accurate way of changing metres into feet is not as well known as it should be, so we publish it again. The re-measurement of the standards brought a o into the third place of decimals, one metre = 39.370113 inches.
Hence 10 kilometres = 393701.13 inches.
Take the metre=39.37 ins. and the error is 1⅛ inches in 10 km. or 6¼ miles. Now very luckily 39.37 ins. = 40 ins. – .63 ins. = 3⅓ ft. – 1/20 ft. – 1/400 ft. Hence to get the height of a mountain off a foreign map, add 0 to the metre number and divide by 3. The result is from 100 to 250 too big, so divide the metre number by 20 and subtract. You are now only a few feet out, and the next step will give you the exact number of feet.
By this trick, elaborate tables compiled with much labour, can be corrected in a few minutes.
WITH KINDRED CLUBS.—G. Winthrop Young (Hon. Member) was President of the Alpine Club 1941-2-3. W. Allsup has been Vice-President of the Himalayan Club.
Clifford Chubb, our President in 1946, was made Membre d’Honneur of the Societe Speleologique de France, and Monsieur R. de Joly, President of the French Club was elected Honorary Member of the Y.R.C. at our last General Meeting.
N. P. Elliott during his service in South Africa was most kindly and hospitably received by the Mountain Club, and made a temporary Hon. Member.
THE LAKE DISTRICT.—The battle in defence of Lakeland grows severe. The Services have dug up ancient Acts which ought to be recast, and it looks as if Martindale was going to be lost to the public. The threat of the mines to Ullswater is still extremely serious. Although there are at least three western valleys suitable for reservoirs, the industrialist prefers to seize upon Ennerdale Water. Wastwater will be the next to go, no lake so easy to dam. We may yet see Wastdale flooded up to Burnthwaite. Zoning and solemn undertakings given no longer count.
Recent legislation of a complex character threatens to diminish gravely public rights, and endows Ministers with extensive dictatorial powers. Far too heavy a load is being thrown on the watchfulness of private societies.
THE DEEPEST GULFS.—Our French friends have been able to do some pot-holing during the War, and in 1941 Chevalier, Petzl, Dubost, Guillemin, and Mdme. Chevalier had the remarkable success of going beyond the furthest point, 870 ft. deep, in the Trou de Glaz down into the Guiers Mort at 1,030 ft., 381 ft. above the entrance to the latter.
Thus the Trou de Glaz appears to be now the seventh deepest cavern explored, the list given Y.R.C.J., VII, p. 67, being now (1) Spluga delta Preta, 2,090 ft. ; (2) Antro delta Carchia, 1,775 ft. ; (3) Abisso di Verco, 1,758 ft. ; (4) Abisso de Montenero, 1,575 ft. ; (5) Tonion Schacht, 1,542 ft. (6) Grotta Bertarelli, 1,476 ft. ; (7) Trou de Glaz and Guiers Mort, 1,401 ft. ; (8) Abisso di Clana, 1,378 ft.
The deepest caverns in France are :—
Trou de Glaz (Charteuse), 427 m. =1,401 ft. (Spehtnca).
Gouffre Martel (Ariege), 303 m. = 994 ft.
Trou de Heyle (Basses Pyrenees), 250 m.=82o ft.
Grotte des Eaux Chaudes (Pyrenees), 234 m. ascent =768 ft.
Chourums Dupont et Martin (Vercors), 216 m. accurate = 709 ft.
Gouffre de la Combe de Per (Isere), 216 m.=709 ft.
Grotte de la Luire (Vercors), 213 m. = 699 ft.
Aven de Hures (Lozere), 205 m. =672 ft.
Gouffre de Paradis (Doubs), 204 m. =669 ft.
Aven d’Orgnac (Ardéche), over 200 metres.
MICKLE, MEIKLE, MUCKLE.—Readers of Scott are familiar with the frequent alternatives, mickle and muckle. Owing to the lengthening of short sounds so popular in the present age, mickle in Scots to-day appears mostly as meikle. In the North of England it ceased within the nineteenth century to be a living word. In English place-names muckle appears as much.
Scott died in 1832 and his novels had such tremendous popularity that it can have been only after 1850 or 1860 that the cockney proverb ” many a mickle makes a muckle ” (not to be found in any book of reference) began to pass for Scotch. Some literary researcher might usefully trace its earliest appearance. Nowadays it puzzles the youthful and even takes in Scotsmen. In fact it is an excellent test whether a man knows much Scots or is just posing.
In place-names Mickle is frequent both in England and Scotland, but it is surprising how rare is the complete pair, Mickle and Little ; Much and Little is much commoner. Mickle Fell and Little Fell will occur at once, Micheldean and Little Dean, near Derby Mickleover and Littleover. In the Campsies are Meikle Bin and Little Bin, on Lochnagar Meikle Pap and Little Pap.
A final thought, why does ” Big ” never appear in a British place-name, always ” Great.” The answer is that ” big ” with its slightly comic touch is of unknown derivation, appeared in English first about 1300 and was centuries in coming into general use.
GILL OR JILE.—To the ordinary Briton spelling is a deep mystery, and any straightforward spelling is wrong as so humorously laid down by H. G. Wells. Only thus can one account for the multitude who love the rugged spelling ” ghyll.” I was never able to find any early use of ” ghyll ” and therefore stood firm against its use in the Journal except for G.G. on special pleas from founder members. That became Gaping Gill as soon as I found no trace of the rugged form in any Place-Name volume, and I was justified by finding in Murray’s great English Dictionary—GHYLL, invented by Wordsworth, used only in guide-books to the Lake District. Map makers use gill, and it is suggested that ” ghyll ” implies a charge for admission, or the sale of refreshments.
Except in two words, curious survivals of Caxton’s endeavour to introduce Dutch spellings, h alters the sound of the letter before it, usually to /, and jile is really quite a good shot at ” ghyll,” made by an unhappy broadcaster. To round off this, English g and c are only pronounced as j and s in words of foreign derivation. Welsh and Gaelic also stick to g and c, as in Precelly, Ceiriog, Gillie, Cioch.
PHREATIC AND VADOSE.—There is a new extension of the theory of formation of caves, applying to areas where under ground erosion has no relation to surface form. Its battle cries are ” phreatic ” and ” vadose,” The latter is ” shallow “; ” phreatic ” is ” tank ” and applies to caves under water level where the limestone as in Majorca dips into the sea, or a lake.
Problems of pot-hole formation in England and France are simple. It is otherwise in America where any number of gigantic cave labyrinths exist ; 350 miles of passage are spoken of, i.e. 70 miles applying the factor of safety. Any bed of limestone must have been up and down several times to admit of strata being laid down on it, and when thousands of feet down all passages would be crushed in. Still the new view is that much erosion occurs under water.
BIRKBECK CENTENARIES.—Mr. John Birkbeck, senior, of Anley, Settle, one of the Alpine pioneers who reached the highest point of Monte Rosa in 1855, was earlier interested in the pot-holes. He led the first descent of Alum Pot in 1848, and was lowered to the Ledge in Gaping Gill probably in 1849. These feats are mentioned in Howson’s Curiosities of Craven, 1850, and in two other books of 1852 and 1866.
The Birkbeck Trench is thus almost a hundred years old.
THE CLUB JUBILEE.—In the middle of the War, in October, 1942, the Yorkshire Ramblers’ Club had been founded fifty years. It was impossible to celebrate this as we had hoped and as other Clubs have done, nor indeed would it be possible in these stringent days. The founders and other great leaders have passed from us as the years have rolled on.
It is interesting to look through the early Reports ; Leach, Constantine and Leonard Moore appear in the first list, Gray in the second. Leach, President 1925-7, was an officer in the second year ; Gray, the first Editor, President 1931-2, was on the third Committee, and Constantine was a Secretary from the third year right away to 1921. Those who have been members a mere thirty years or so owe a great deal to Constantine for making them realise they had found their spiritual home.