Depths of the Earth: Caves and Cavers of the United States

This book is a wonderful introduction to the history of cave exploration in the United States of America. It chronicles exploration by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in Virginia (Chapter 3), slave Steven Bishop in Mammoth Cave (Chapter 1), and the infamous Floyd Collins who died trapped in a Kentucky cave in 1925 (Chapter 2). (The Death of Floyd Collins was the FIRST record to sell one million copies!)All major cave regions of the country are included and both wild caves and commercial caves are featured. Some of these caves will either be near where you live or where you will go on vacation.All types of caves are mentioned, including limestone caves (the most common), lava tube caves, and glacier caves. Chapter 15 discusses the beginings of exploring completely flooded caves with scuba gear and Chapter 13 chronicles the history of the development of modern vertical caving techniques.If you have any interest at all in caves, you should enjoy this book. It includes many interesting black-and-white photographs and maps.Bill Halliday's books were translated into Russian and he is regarded as having sparked the Russian's interst in their own caves. Some people have referred to him as the "Father Of Russian Speleology".