"Reptation"

Joe Duxbury

Member
I would like to find the book in which there is a description of the various stages of progression through caves, starting with walking, through stooping, crawling, and ending with "reptation": crawling like a snake.
I thought it was written by Norbert Casteret, but I can't find it in "10 Years Under the Earth". Can anyone locate this quotation for me?
 
Joe Duxbury said:
I would like to find the book in which there is a description of the various stages of progression through caves, starting with walking, through stooping, crawling, and ending with "reptation": crawling like a snake.
I thought it was written by Norbert Casteret, but I can't find it in "10 Years Under the Earth". Can anyone locate this quotation for me?

My Caves by Norbert Casteret pages 54 to 59 (in my copy) - I'll be putting a copy up for sale on E-bay on Tuesday or Wednesday this week - just look under my e-bay user name axbridgecaver. There might be a few errors since I OCRed the book.

"While we are still awaiting the coming of the subterranean mode of travel I have indicated above, we have in a sphere of activity to which scant attention has been given, a natural bodily movement, a means of prospecting which is so rarely employed that the only names our language has for it are seldom used, rampement or reptation
Reptation involves an attitude so seldom adopted by the human race that it appears to be the fate allotted few inferior creatures, a thing essentially ill suited to man, a being of vertical habit, whose whole body and outlook is directed skyward. Man, in fact, is only reduced to this unusual creeping posture in extreme cases, which bring him down to the level of the brute beast. When he creeps and comes nearest to the mere animal, it is from cruelty, from guile, or from cowardice; it is when he is about to make a sudden and treacherous attack on his enemy, to flee from danger, and also when the common fate of all overtakes him and he suffers and dies on the earth to whose dust he soon returns.

Yet there is another way of returning to the dust, and other and better reasons for crawling in it. You may think I am only indulging a love of paradox or pushing an enthusiasm for the underground world too far, in singing the praises of reptation. But I must defend its claims and extol its usefulness, its appeal to our imagination and our skill, and its rewards when we apply it to the study of problems and mysteries to which it has sometimes given us the key, when we have won access by crawling on our bellies in the interior of the earth to new worlds that have filled us with wonder and delight.

We find, when we go underground, that the dimensions and shapes of natural cavities in the earth vary in the most disconcerting fashion, from great spacious halls to tiny tunnels so small that there is no possibility of entering them. Of slightly larger calibre are the passages of all sorts which spelaeologists endeavour to ‘force,’ as they describe it, in various ways and which they refer to by characteristic names, which help us to visualize them and are full of meaning to the initiated—tunnels, bottle-necks, cat-runs, blowholes, joints, strata, squeezes, flatteners. Instead of trying to enlighten the reader as to the meaning of this terminolory, in which neologisms come up against scientific terms and also names which are purely picturesque or humorous, let me try to show how the obstacles they suggest can be overcome and how it is possible to pursue such an arduous and thrilling activity as reptation underground.
Provided one knows how to crawl—for it is a thing that has to be learned—above all, if one has the will and the courage to persist at all costs, very few narrow tunnels are impossible to get through, for a man is so made that he can stretch himself out lengthways better than any animal of the same bulk in the middle. Tales of persons who have got immovably wedged in narrow passages and who, being unable to free themselves have perished there, are unhappily true enough. But these tragedies can be put down in nearly every case to the instinctive terror of being imprisoned for good, which produces a sudden stiffening and superhuman but misdirected struggles, and these are quickly followed by exhaustion; whereas it is by keeping the body supple, by slow deliberation, and above all by calm control of mind and body that I have managed to extract my person from the most repellent ‘flatteners’ into which I have ventured.

A child playing about, which has pushed its head between the bars of a chair or through some railings, begins all a once to struggle and yell and hurt itself simply from fear of not being able to get its head out. In its panic, sometimes aggravated by that of the parent, it fails to find the particular position which enabled it to get its head through quite easily, because then it had felt its way forward; head slipping gently through as if it were caressing bars, without the least sign of jerkiness.

Reptation puts a considerable strain on the muscles a forces the body into positions which are extremely unpleasant on sharp rocks, or in dust or mud, or it may in water.

It is advisable to be as lightly clad as possible. Pockets should be previously emptied of everything in them, a on no account should the crawler wear a loose jacket, skirt, or any piece of clothing that might catch on projections, or worse still, might be rucked up if the wearer is obliged to crawl backwards. Avoidance of this most important, for the turning back of a coat has been known to wedge a crawler irretrievably with fatal results. There have been instances of sportsmen having crawled a few yards into a burrow and been found later dead, through having been held fixed by the wad formed by the rucking up of their clothes.

A single combination garment of coarse linen is the best for general cave work, and particularly good for reptation because of the freedom of movement it allows and because it is less apt to catch than cloth stuffs.

There are many cases, however, where one must bow to necessity and become as slim as possible, get rid of every sort of garment and crawl naked like a worm.

Creatures which live underground, such as worms and moles, have bare skins or extremely short hair on the body. In them we see a happy arrangement on the part of providence, a precaution of nature’s to meet a need which man does well to imitate when he enters their particular domain. Lightly clad then or naked, head first or feet first according to circumstances, the crawler should slip into the main tunnel, placing himself on his belly, his side, or his back as the shape of the pipe-like passage demands.

Progress forward is effected either on the elbows and knees in comparatively roomy tunnels, or by propelling oneself by means of the hands folded under the chest and by movements of the feet from the ankle when the roof is extremely low. In pure reptation, movement is limited to feeble waggles of the loins, the rump, and the knees, such movements being necessarily very restricted and their range dependent on the cross section of the ‘pipe.’ In the final case, where the limit of human penetration is reached, individual bulk becomes an important factor, the ‘waggles become worm-like stretchings in which alternate puffing out and drawing in of the thorax enable contracting movements to travel down the body and make it slide forwards as a cleaning sponge does in the barrel of a gun. Reptation in these cases reminds me of the way the ears barley children put up their sleeves work along every time the arm moves till they reach the shoulder, thanks to the stiff beard of the plant.

In this final stage of crawling the arms are the worst nuisance. When you crawl you understand why snakes have no limbs or only limbs that are atrophied. What to do with the arms, where to put them, how to dispose of them—that is the biggest problem of reptation.

Held to the sides of the body the arms obviously increase our girth; moreover, in this posture of a tied-up prisoner one is paralysed. Stretching out the arms in front would seem a more practical way, but, on the contrary, this only broadens the span of the shoulders and defeats our purpose even more than keeping the arms close to the sides. The secret that solves the problem is to shoot one arm forward and keep the other tight against the chest, the forearm being folded back into the hollow of the belly. In this position the shoulders, with one thrown forward and the other held back, cease to form an obstacle, as they are placed diagonally, so lessening their squareness. The hand in front can hold the torch, feel the nature of the ground, push away any stones or other obstructions that might hamper or prevent further progress. The hand held against the body helps to propel it along like a pectoral fin, and it is this hand which has to free the clothes which may be constantly getting caught at the level of the chest. As for the rest of the body, it feels its way with the shoulders and hips and has to direct itself and creep along in the position best suited to the windings and irregularities of the rocky tube.

It is in crawling backwards that reptation becomes a particularly delicate operation; a right-about turn is hardly ever possible, it is a matter of putting the engine in reverse. It is an effort that calls for the maximum of suppleness in, movement and of patience, and imperturbable self-control is needed when the body fails to find the one perfect positioinand sticks.

It is then one appreciates and understands the need for being undressed. Far better than nailed boots, which get in the way and give only a vague indication of the nature of the walls, the bare toes feel and interpret every unevenness in the rock; better too than in thick clothes, which hamper movement and are always catching on something, the bare body, supple, smooth, and extremely compressible, fits itself exactly to the sharp bend in the tunnel, glides almost unconsciously into the narrowing passage, and gets through everywhere. In such places skill and precision of movement are indispensable.

I am prepared to admit that this man-serpent game, with its prospect of having to lie, sometimes for hours, on nasty cold rock, in mud or icy water, rubbing the skin off elbows, knees, and all parts of the body, is not every one’s idea of enjoyment. Can people really be thrilled by activities so repellent, dangerous, unhealthy, and possibly useless? Is there not beauty and variety enough under the vault of heaven, that a man must go and grope his way blindly at enormous labour, plunging down deliberately into the darkness of the nether regions and all the pitfalls it contains?

Now that is not a fair way of putting the matter. Either a man is an underground explorer or he is not; the very real drawbacks and undoubted dangers involved in reptation are rewarded and justified by results and sources of satisfaction which I must put before you when I attempt to defend these freakish performances of mine, which at first sight must appear devoid of sense or an obvious case of special pleading.

My very first effort at reptation was not a happy one, though it in no way diminished my affection for caves; it was the introductory lesson from which much had to be learnt. The scene of this performance was the group of small but steep-floored caves of L’Escalère, whose openings are in the cliff at Saint-Martory, where the Garonne washes against it."
 
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