Edouard Alfred Martel

*1859-✝1938


A rope dedicated to the Speological Institute in Cluj by Martel.
E. A. Martel on one of his most famous expeditions into Gaping Gill, Yorkshire, Great Britain.
photography
Edouard Alfred Martel. Public Domain.

Edouard Alfred Martel is the father of modern speleology, and famous until today in France. In other countries he is not known, probably because his books were never translated in other languages. He was the first one, who explored caves with a scientific interest. Speleology didn’t exist at this time, and he had no geological background. He felt more like a Geographer, discovering new territory underground.

Martel was a lawyer, but he didn’t like his profession very much. So he used the first possibility to become the first full time caver of history. He bought the ShowcaveGouffre de Padirac and made it a show cave.

Martel organized his cave tours in campaigns that looked like Himalaya expeditions. Many locals were paid to haul heavy equipment. The tours were made by Martel, his friend Lucien Rudaux who made paintings of the expedition, and the blacksmith Louis Armand who was responsible for most of the equipment.


Between 1888 and 1914, Martel organized annual campaigns all over Europe. Some highlights were:


27-JUN-1888 Exploration of the underground river of the ShowcaveAbîme de Bramabiau. Martel made the first through-crossing of the plateau de Camprieu in Southern France. This is often called the birthday of Speleology.
1889 He descended 100 meters into the ShowcaveGouffre de Padirac. Martel and his cousin Gaupillat discovered an underground stream and followed it for 2 km in a dingi.
1895 He travelled to Ireland and England, exploring ShowcaveMarble Arch Cave in Northern Ireland and CaveGaping Ghyll in Yorkshire.
1896 Martel and Louis Armand explored caves on Mallorca, e.g. ShowcaveCuevas del Drach. They were invited by the Archduke Ludwig Salvator, who lived in Miramar.
1897 At the end of an unsuccessful campaign into Les Causses, Louis Armand persuaded Martel to visit a last aven. He discovered a huge chamber with huge Stalagmites. The cave was named ShowcaveAven Armand after its discoverer. It was later developed as a show cave by an association, but Armand was already 5 years dead, when the cave was finally opened to the public in 1927.
1902 The Loi Martel is the first nature protection law which includes the protection of groundwater and caves.
1905 Martel makes the first through trip through the GorgeGorges du Verdon. Although this is not a cave, the tour was very similar to exploring a water cave. Today a trail through the canyon is named after Martel.

Martel is also famous for a nature protection law which is thus called Loi Martel. The following box is the description of this event in his own words. He was very ambitious and soon succeeded in having karst areas included in French legislation as water protection areas. Article 28 was introduced into the law relating to public health on 15-FEB-1902, prohibited the throwing of animal carcasses and putrescible waste into caves. The Loi Martel (Martel Law) was the first nature protection law when it was issued in 1902.

Le 14 juillet 1891, nous rencontrions une carcasse de veau, à moitié pourrie, au milieu même d’un ruisseau souterrain, dans le gouffre de la Berrie, près de Cahors, profond de 34 mètres. Quelques heures après l’exploration de cet abîme, et sans réfléchir à la constatation que nous venions de faire, nous nous désaltérions à la source voisine de Graudenc, qui correspond d’une façon sûre (distance à vol d’oiseau : 250 à 300 mètres) avec le ruisseau intérieur de la Berrie (que l’on ne peut suivre que sur quelques mètres sous les voûtes trop basses du fond du gouffre). Deux ou trois jours après, nous fûmes, G. Gaupillat et moi, atteints d’une sorte d’empoisonnement ptomaïque, qui nous indisposa fort pendant plusieurs semaines. Cette expérience involontaire était convaincante. On voit que cette cause de contamination éventuelle des sources, dans les pays calcaires, intéresse l’hygiène publique; en conséquence, il paraît opportun de formuler les deux vœux suivants :
1° Connaître quels sont, dans les régions calcaires de France, les puits naturels susceptibles de communiquer plus ou moins directement avec les eaux souterraines qui alimentent les sources ;
2° Interdire, soit administrativement, soit par des dispositions légales nouvelles, le jet des immondices et des bêtes mortes dans les gouffres où une communication aura été reconnue.
Pratiquement, on pourrait voûter ceux dont l’orifice est étroit et entourer de clôtures ceux qui sont trop largement ouverts. Accessoirement même, on évitera encore de cette manière :
1° les accidents fréquents qui résultent des chutes fortuites de bestiaux ou de personnes dans ces trous souvent béants au milieu des champs ;
2° l’essaimage des mouches et insectes venimeux que la présence des carcasses attire au fond" et aux abords des abîmes.

On 14 July 1891, we came across the half-rotten carcass of a calf right in the middle of an underground stream, in the Berrie chasm near Cahors, which is 34 metres deep. A few hours after exploring this abyss, and without giving a second thought to what we had just discovered, we quenched our thirst at the nearby Graudenc spring, which undoubtedly connects (as the crow flies: 250 to 300 metres) with the underground stream of the Berrie (which can only be followed for a few metres beneath the overly low vaults at the bottom of the chasm). Two or three days later, G. Gaupillat and I were struck by a sort of ptomaic poisoning, which left us feeling very unwell for several weeks. This unintended experiment was convincing. It is clear that this potential source of contamination of springs in limestone regions is a matter of public health; consequently, it seems appropriate to make the following two recommendations:
1° To identify, in the limestone regions of France, the natural wells likely to communicate more or less directly with the groundwater that feeds the springs;
2° To prohibit, either administratively or through new legislation, the disposal of refuse and dead animals into the chasms where such a connection has been identified.
In practical terms, those with narrow openings could be vaulted over, and those that are too wide open could be fenced off. Incidentally, this measure would also help to prevent:
1° the frequent accidents resulting from livestock or people accidentally falling into these holes, which are often gaping in the middle of fields;
2° the swarming of flies and poisonous insects attracted by the presence of carcasses at the bottom and around the edges of the chasms.

Bibiography

Literature