texascavers Digest 9 Jun 2014 17:03:03 - Issue 1992
Topics (messages 23922 through 23925):
book review: crystal caves of Mexico
23922 by: Mixon Bill
book review: archeological investigations
23923 by: Mixon Bill
almost a funny story
23924 by: David
Rescue in Germany at a -1148 m cave
23925 by: Fofo
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---BeginMessage---
Journey into the Giant Selenite Crystal Caves of Mexico. Leela
Hutchison. CreateSpace; 2014. ISBN 978-1496145680. 6 by 9 inches,
softbound, 102 pages. $19.95.
This little book was self-published by the author using CreateSpace
and is sold by Amazon. There is also a Kindle version. One might
expect a book with such a high price per page to contain a lot of nice
color photos of the spectacular giant crystals, but in fact the book
contains only a few small, mostly poor-quality black-and-white ones.
The text isn't much either, the type being large, and isn't much to
brag about, either. It could have used a good going over by a middle-
school English teacher. After some background on the author's interest
in crystals, it tells the story of the author's 2001 visit to the
recently discovered Ojo de la Reina and Cave of the Crystals in the
Naica mine in Chihuahua. She was one of the first two women to visit
the caves, apparently on the same trip when Carlos Lazcano took the
first photographs of the crystals to be published in caving
literature, in AMCS Activities Newsletter 25, 2002. The visit,
without benefit of the cooling gear used on later explorations, was
grueling, but very exciting to the author, who is into healing by
crystal energy and that sort of thing.—Bill Mixon
Work is the curse of the drinking class.
You may reply to the address this message
came from, but for long-term use, save:
Personal: bmi...@alumni.uchicago.edu
AMCS: a...@mexicancaves.org or sa...@mexicancaves.org
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---BeginMessage---
Cave Explorations in Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Alabama. Gerard Fowke. St. Louis, J. Missouri; 2013. ISBN
978-1-940777-06-1. 5.5 by 8.5 inches, softbound, 209 pages. $14.95.
This is an abridged reprint, newly typeset, of Fowke's classic 1922
Archeological Investigations, bulletin 76 of the Bureau of American
Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution. The grayscale illustrations
in the original are well reproduced. Roughly the first three-quarters
of the reprint covers about seventy-five caves and a few other sites
in Missouri; the remainder is devoted to caves in the other states in
the title. The material in the original that is not included, about a
quarter of that book, is non-cave material, including archaeology of
Hawaii. (A couple of modern cave burials in Hawaii are mentioned.)
Amazon lists at least three recent facsimile reprints of the whole
book, at higher prices. It isn't hard to find a used original on the
web for less than the price of this partial reprint.—Bill Mixon
Work is the curse of the drinking class.
You may reply to the address this message
came from, but for long-term use, save:
Personal: bmi...@alumni.uchicago.edu
AMCS: a...@mexicancaves.org or sa...@mexicancaves.org
---End Message---
---BeginMessage---
Sorry I missed the big party in Austin, Saturday evening.
For the record, I drove from Houston about 5 miles west in that
direction procrastinating
back and forth about going. I decided not to go. Then I made a U-turn
and headed back towards the
party, and drove for about 1/4 mile before I made another U-turn.
Finally, facing the music, I yelled some explicatives to the wind, and
then went and had dinner and
watched the X-Games on tv at the restaurant, which ironically were
going on in Austin.
I sat there pondering and had to accept that the realities of life
this time, were greater than my irresponsibilites.
A few hours later, as I was sitting around the apartment with nothing
to do, I almost got in the
car with the goal of getting there by 2 a.m. and just taking a quick
dip in The Pond
and then camping out enjoying the summer weather, and maybe having breakfast
with any cavers that camped out there.But that seemed like a bad idea.
Hopefully, I can make one of the Sunday Swims later this summer.
On a related note,
I am still looking for a roommate at my apartment near downtown Houston. If I
do not find one by the end of the month, I will have to pack up and
put all my stuff in my rental storage unit again. I wasted so
much
