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摘要
摘要
Taylor (journalism, Henderson State U.) takes us spelunking around the world in flooded and dry caves and, something the caving books of past decades missed, in China. Good writing, high (low?) adventure. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
评论 (4)
出版社周刊评论
If cave diving is the ultimate in extreme sport, then cave exploration is right behind it. Taylor, a veteran caver and expedition leader for the National Speleological Society, points out that because the last frontiers are space, the ocean floor and underground, caving is the obvious choice for most individuals. He gives a vivid account of special adventuresslithering through narrow chimneys, using rock-climbing techniques to descend, and squeezing through passages less than a foot high in icy water. The Grim Crawl of Death, in Wyoming's Great Expectations Cave, is, he says, the ultimate test of skill and resolve; it is the Eiger of American caving. Taylor describes a 1991 rescuewhich took four days and involved 170 peopleof a woman in the Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico. He chronicles other underground adventures in China, Jamaica and the Old Croton Aqueduct in New York State. Taylor reminds us that caves are exceedingly fragile systemsa careless or clumsy caver can destroy 10,000 years of geologic sculpture. This is an involving introduction to another mysterious world. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus评论
Caving exploits, some of them terrifying, elegantly described by Taylor (Journalism/Henderson State Univ.). There is a small, international fraternity of the intrepid and obsessed, whose members actually find it recreational to plunge deep into subterranean darkness, inching forward on their backs or bellies through shoulder-width, seven-inch-high crawlways, often awash in freezing water, sometimes having to gulp air from pockets in the ceiling, not knowing where a passage may lead, the only certainty the constant presence of danger. Call them cavers (``spelunkers'' is déclassé), and expect to find them most anywhere that limestone gives evidence of stygian glories. They poke about the underworld gloom of Borneo, crawl around deep under the sands of the Sultanate of Oman, wander slack-jawed through Switzerland's Holloch and Russia's Peschtschera Optimistitscheskaya. Taylor, now a dad, has for the moment retired his carbide lamp, but this collection of stitched together magazine articles is testament to his caving credentials. Taylor celebrates both caves and cavers: caves as diverse as the great labyrinths of China's Guizhou and Guangdong provinces (Taoist monks mapped these vast underground networks in the early 17th century) and segments of Manhattan's abandoned Croton aqueduct system (he kisses the brick where an Irish laborer scratched his name a hundred years before); cavers ranging from the Coons, a husband and wife, both 70 years old, who continue to survey South Dakota's depths, to caving legend Sheck Exley, who came home in a box following a 1,000-foot descent in the Mexican desert into what turned out to be a flooded hole. Along the way, Taylor details the winding road of his freelance writing career--interesting, if familiar, terrain; but his true element is down under, with all its geological intricacies--latticeworks and crystals and rushing waterways--and with those curious souls at home in the netherscape. Mesmerizing, but not recommended for anyone with even a hint of claustrophobia.
《书目》(Booklist)书评
As river and cave explorers, these two authors are conservationists at heart. By sharing their adventures, they serve not only the armchair traveler but also the environmentalist. For 25 years Palmer has navigated more than 300 different U.S. rivers, photographing and writing about his experiences in 10 other books. Here he takes the reader on a tour of U.S. waterways from east to west via streams, tributaries, rusting dams, and whitewater rapids. Each chapter draws a picture of the terrain as he moves from the glaciated Northeast through Appalachia, the South and Midwest to the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the Western deserts, Sierra Nevada, and up to the Northwest and Alaska. For each region Palmer selects a river to paddle, delving into the makeup of the riparian forests, wildlife, and cities along its banks, as well as pollution problems and the efforts to remedy them, all the while basking in each river's distinctive character. Taylor has been a caver for 17 years ("caver" is preferred to "spelunker" by those who investigate subterranean passages) and has visited caves in Mexico, Jamaica, China, and throughout the U.S. Following the caver's creed to "take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, and kill nothing but time," Taylor has carefully studied columns (when stalactites meet stalagmites), bat colonies, and fossils while exploring and mapping caves and cave entrances. He offers anecdotes about caving etiquette, caving accidents, cave diving deaths, and tight squeezes. When he gets stuck in a narrow passage and has to back up, remove his clothing, and try again to crawl through, the reader can feel jagged edges of rock digging into Taylor's naked back. The danger and excitement of this "hidden realm of delicate beauty" come through as loudly as the need to protect it. --Jennifer Henderson
《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评
Cavers are a unique breed, a point Taylor gets across very well in this eloquent collection of underground (and some surface) adventures. An experienced caver, he introduces us to some unique personalities and escapades, including "squeezes" through places with names like Agony, Criso Creak, and the Grim Crawl of Death. He leads us through caves in Florida, Wyoming, Jamaica, and China, among other places. He even gets us safely through the old Croton Aqueduct in the Bronx. Safety cautions and advice on how to join a caving group are included. Sadly, the occasion for the book seems to have been the death of a much-respected caver, Sheck Exley. Taylor's chapters on Exley are quite moving: obviously, he and many others have lost a dear friend and mentor. Recommended for natural history armchair travel collections.Nancy J. Moeckel, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, Ohio (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.