Eldon Hole - Trip Report
- Thread starter Mark Wright
- Start date
Posted on the UKC facebook page today:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/community/identification/teeth-bones?fromGateway=true
Oh please let it be a badger's tooth - the irony
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/community/identification/teeth-bones?fromGateway=true
Oh please let it be a badger's tooth - the irony
alastairgott
Well-known member
click the link adam ^, I don't think you need moderator approval to use the internet
Mrs Trellis
Well-known member
A vitnery friend says it could be fox or small dog.
Mark R
Well-known member
Last Night Mark W and I went back underground to continue where we left off on Sunday.
Two big revelations;
1) If you wash your caving kit, including gloves its much, much nicer to put on.
2) a 18v reciprocating saw is an absolute godsend and I dont know why we havent tried one before.
We started by cutting off the 6 or so boards that have been sticking up in the entrance dig for a while and getting in the way- that took about a minute with the saw
Next job was to find the capping mat.. someone had built a very neat wall in front of it on Sunday so we destroyed that to retrieve the mat and set about capping the large slab at the bottom of the dig whilst Mark W went around trimming boards and scaffold tubes with the power saw. Again- Why on earth are we only just discovering this now!?
Once mark had liberated enough short boards and I had liberated enough large bits of rock we began the task of boarding and backfilling the walls at the bottom of the dig, getting rid of quite a bit of material in the process. The boulder is definitely still there but weve got it well and truly worried. It should all be out on the next trip.
We spent a bit of time pulling teeth and bones out of the same area the previous canine came from, -15m from main chamber floor and below the clay layer. Have a look at the results of the amateur archaeology below (sorry about the bendy ruler, its all I could find in a rush this morning). Obviously there are all sorts of other bits of animal down there- the large tooth was from 0.5m away and looks like a cow or horse?
Bottom of the dig is looking nice- loose and draughty, the next trip will be a big hauling session and some good downward progress is anticipated.
We have a new stock of boards and plenty of doubles, ill be collecting some tube tonight from Ash but we are desperately short of single clips again now.
Two big revelations;
1) If you wash your caving kit, including gloves its much, much nicer to put on.
2) a 18v reciprocating saw is an absolute godsend and I dont know why we havent tried one before.
We started by cutting off the 6 or so boards that have been sticking up in the entrance dig for a while and getting in the way- that took about a minute with the saw
Next job was to find the capping mat.. someone had built a very neat wall in front of it on Sunday so we destroyed that to retrieve the mat and set about capping the large slab at the bottom of the dig whilst Mark W went around trimming boards and scaffold tubes with the power saw. Again- Why on earth are we only just discovering this now!?
Once mark had liberated enough short boards and I had liberated enough large bits of rock we began the task of boarding and backfilling the walls at the bottom of the dig, getting rid of quite a bit of material in the process. The boulder is definitely still there but weve got it well and truly worried. It should all be out on the next trip.
We spent a bit of time pulling teeth and bones out of the same area the previous canine came from, -15m from main chamber floor and below the clay layer. Have a look at the results of the amateur archaeology below (sorry about the bendy ruler, its all I could find in a rush this morning). Obviously there are all sorts of other bits of animal down there- the large tooth was from 0.5m away and looks like a cow or horse?
Bottom of the dig is looking nice- loose and draughty, the next trip will be a big hauling session and some good downward progress is anticipated.
We have a new stock of boards and plenty of doubles, ill be collecting some tube tonight from Ash but we are desperately short of single clips again now.
pwhole
Well-known member
Don't forget there's meant to be at least one victim of a highwayman down there - and his horse. If it's true, I guess you're unlikely to find any dubloons on him, but he may have a fancy jacket you can prussick out in. Remember to take it off before you phone the cops though...
Do make sure all bones and the like are reported to Andrew Chamberlain as he is investigating bones found in cave digs to check the ages of the remains.
Hyena bones have been found in a Peak Cavern dig so, if you come across any of these these, you're down into prehistoric layers!
Hyena bones have been found in a Peak Cavern dig so, if you come across any of these these, you're down into prehistoric layers!
alastairgott
Well-known member
Stand and Deliver!
Unlikely to be any muskets either, I guess they'd be quite valuable too.
Unlikely to be any muskets either, I guess they'd be quite valuable too.
Not necessarily.
The point made by Andrew was that bones get washed through from their original site and may give a clue to a former route from a swallet. So, if you find hyena bones anywhere in a swallet above Peak Cavern, you may be looking at a potential route through into Peak where more of the bones finally came to rest.
The point made by Andrew was that bones get washed through from their original site and may give a clue to a former route from a swallet. So, if you find hyena bones anywhere in a swallet above Peak Cavern, you may be looking at a potential route through into Peak where more of the bones finally came to rest.
adam
Member
Just what I was thinking, Madness. If we're into prehistoric layers, we've definitely missed the supposed second shaft. I doubt most of the bones have been washed through, as there are some fairly compact mud layers within the fill, not a great deal of water even in wet weather, and some of the bones are calcited in place within the back wall of the dig.
Perhaps we should start tunnelling horizontally :doubt:
Then again, down is good, the river is down.
We've already found his hat...
Perhaps we should start tunnelling horizontally :doubt:
Then again, down is good, the river is down.
pwhole said:
We've already found his hat...
pwhole
Well-known member
My feeling is that there will be a lot of fill from more 'modern' times than 'prehistoric' yet. Before anyone descended Eldon Hole in any real documented sense, there must still have been a huge amount of time where folks chucked rocks down it - and natural breakdown of the walls contributing too, what with the weather up there. I can easily imagine Roman soldiers, for example, wanging a few down if they stopped for lunch nearby during a long march. There wouldn't be much else to do around there, unless the really perceptive ones had spotted some veins and begun digging!
