Comment by Jan Paul van der Pas in SSC 13, 1983

Sometimes it's hard to find data concerning cave related facts on stamps. Sometimes it's possible to find 'new' cave related stamps if you have enough data to research. A book which gave me some idea's is 'History of Cave Science'. Advantage: a lot of information you can hardly find yourself. Disadvantage: a price normal people can hardly afford and a printing quality which is below all standards.

'HISTORY OF GAVE SCIENCE' - The scientific investigation of limestone caves to 1900. By Trevor R. Shaw, OBE., Ph.D., C.Eng., FGS. xvi + 490 pp, 88 illustrations \many are photographs), duplicated A4. Card cover. £30 post paid by Mrs. Anne Oldham, Rhychydwr, Crymych, Dyfed SA41 3RB Great Britain.

There is a wealth of detail packed into its 500 pages and its compilation has involved the author in travel to all parts of the speleological world and brought him into contact with speleologists in many different institutes and universities where he has been privileged to examine and abstract from rare end precious archives, usually prohibited to the public.

This bock is primarily concerned with the geomorphological aspects, speleogenesis, the growth of speleothems end karst hydrology. The progress of cave exploration and the associated factual recording of caves is also dealt with at sorne length, in order to set more specialist studies in context. The development of biospeleology and cave archeology is also covered, but in less detail.

The period covered by this study is mainly from the 16th century unti1 1900. Caves had been visited and attempts made to explain some of their phenomena even in classical times and ideas on the subject were also expressed by mediaeval writers, but it was only with the Renaissance that this subject, like so many others, began to develop again. The cave studies are set in the wider context of other research through the centuries and the disputes between science and the church. A concluding chapter briefly scans some of the trends present in 1900 and their development since.

PART I. Cave exploration: The development of cave exploration; From prehistoric times to the Renaissance; Late 15th to 16th centuries; The 17th century; The 18 century; 1800-1878; 1879- 1900 The work of cave exploring societies; E.A. Martel; Cave Exploration in America; Cave exploration elsewhere in the world.

PART II. Karst hydrology: Hydrology and caves; Underground River Courses; The Origin of Karst Springs; The Water-Table Concept.

PART 111. Speleogenesis: How caves are formed - a general view, present and past; Caves believed to have been made by man; Tectonic origin; Drains for the Deluge; Gas bubbles in new lime-stone; Erosion of 'earth and marl'; Erosion of soft limestone; Mechanical erosion of limestone; Solution of rock salt; Solution by juvenile end thermal water; Solution by vadose water; Solution by phreatic water; Corrosion by the atmosphere; The origin of dolines and pits.

PART IV: Speleothems: Speleothems end their history; Formation By Vegative Growth; Formation by Solidification of Water; Deposit from Vapours; The Lapidifying Juice; Deposit from Suspension or Solution; Deposit from Water Containing Carbon Dioxide; Helictites and Anthodites; Cave Pearls; Other Crystalline Calcareous Cave Deposits; Mondmilch; Gypsum speleothems; Rate of Growth; Medical Uses of Speleothems.

PART V: The overall development of Speleology: Man and animals in caves; The overall development of speleology in relation to other studies; The expansion of speleology - diffusion of cave knowledge; Development since 1900.

APPENDICES: Speleology, a diagrammatic representation; some significant events in the history of cave exploration; Buchner's account of the Breitwinner Cave in 1535; The date of Bremontier's survey of the Rouffignac Cave; Cave exploration campaigns of E.A. Martel, 1888-1913; Examples of underground stream tracing; Place names in Slovenia; The origin of karst springs - summary chart; The concept of the water-table in limestone - summary chart; Description of the Cerknica intermittent lake 1551; Theories of speleogenesis - summary chart; Theories for the formation of stalactites end stalagmites - summary chart; Speleothems in private collections; Speleothems in public collections and in those of learned societies; recorded rates of speleothem growth; Recorded rates of stalagmite growth; the Jockey Cap in Ingleborough Cavern, 1839-1892; Some key dates in speleology, compared with events elsewhere; Speleological Societies in the 19th century.

BILIOGRAPHY: Manuscripts, printed sources end maps.

INDEX.