David Rose
Active member
Here
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Cave_Hunting.html?id=WLocswEACAAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y
You will find a link that will allow a free download of that classic book by William Boyd Dawkins, Cave Hunting, published in 1874. Much of it deals with digs for animal and prehistoric human bones, but there are also accounts of trips into caves including Lower Long Churn, Weathercote, and that terrifying chasm in the Mendips, Goatchurch.
An appendix contains an essential kit list for cave hunters. It doesn't mention capping gear, but does include a steel ten inch chisel, a 'stout rope not less than twenty feet long... for the exploration of vertical fissures,' and 'common composite candles'.
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Cave_Hunting.html?id=WLocswEACAAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y
You will find a link that will allow a free download of that classic book by William Boyd Dawkins, Cave Hunting, published in 1874. Much of it deals with digs for animal and prehistoric human bones, but there are also accounts of trips into caves including Lower Long Churn, Weathercote, and that terrifying chasm in the Mendips, Goatchurch.
An appendix contains an essential kit list for cave hunters. It doesn't mention capping gear, but does include a steel ten inch chisel, a 'stout rope not less than twenty feet long... for the exploration of vertical fissures,' and 'common composite candles'.