I was in the valley of the Célé in 1892 with my friend M. Raymond Pons,
a daring explorer of _avens_ and caves. There was one cavern in a
precipice on the left bank near Brengues that showed tokens of having
been a refuge, from having a pole across the entrance. M. Pons obtained
a stout rope, and the assistance of half-a-dozen peasants, and was let
down over the brink, and by swinging succeeded in obtaining a foothold
within. He there found evident traces of former occupation. But how was
it entered and left in ancient times? From below it was quite
inaccessible, and from above only by the means he employed--a rope.
At Les Mées in the Basses-Alpes is a very similar cave, with two beams
across fastened at the ends into the rock, which is a conglomerate, at
the height of 350 feet, and quite inaccessible. They are mentioned by
the historian Bartel in 1636 as inexplicable by him, and by the
residents in the place.
A not less perplexing rock shelter is that of Fadarelles in the Gorges
of the Tarn.
Of this M. Martel writes: "In a superb cliff of dolomitic limestone of
the _cirque_ of the Beaumes Chauds, M. l'Abbé Solanet was good
enough to conduct me beneath the Baume des Fadarelles, a chasm
inaccessible, at the height of something like 1770 feet in the face of
the precipice, something like the openings of Boundoulaou, but much
narrower.
"In it one can see three coarse beams or rather trunks of trees from
which the boughs have been cut away, each about 12 feet long. As this
opening might well have been that of discharge of a stream, now choked,
for the Baumes Chauds and its adjoining fissures, one is led at first
to suppose that water had brought down these logs that had fallen into
some pot-hole. But this hypothesis is untenable, for it can be seen
that these poles have been artificially pointed at each end, and that
they have been made firm by cross pieces of metal, either bronze or
iron. This may be the remains of a roof or a floor destined to
supplement the insufficiency of the overhanging rock--and of the size
of the fissure, so as to convert it into some sort of shelter. To study
the matter, a ladder of nearly 50 feet would be needed (to be let down
from above). In the absence of all tradition, these beams of Les
Fadarelles remain a mystery. As the face of the cliff is absolutely
smooth above the opening, below and on both sides, completely devoid of
anything like a ledge by which access could be obtained to it, the
question presents itself to one for the third time, as at Boundoulaou
and at Riou Ferrand, were these cliff-dwellers in the Causses like
those in the Cañon of Colorado, or has the demolition of ledges by
weather on these limestone cliffs proceeded with great rapidity?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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