Re: Re: Supplies, questions raised IMOG

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 12:16:19 +0100 (BST)


> Simon Miller

> > Volterra is also a rocky outcrop; it is very steep
> sided (it took about 15
> > minutes to drive up the windy road to the top).
> I'm not a geologist but
> > I'd guess that a lot of organic material would
> accumulate on the top of a
> > flat-topped rock over time, as with Jane's pic of
> the block; grass and
> > shrubs would be the natural state of vegetation.

Wind erosion? Around the last temple of Orlanth? Surely not ! :)

> My favourite comparison are the Aran
> Islands in the Galway
> Bay, west of Ireland. Even though the rock is
> laminated vertically, there
> are lots of places where the wind takes away good
> soil even from the
> crevices. Pictures of Dun Angus ought to be at
> Google...

While I haven't visited *that* Irish round fort, I've visited others, and there is grazing within the perimeter. The perimeter being those wonderful thick walls that you undoubtedly *could* drive a chariot along.

> True in both cases. However, Whitewall wasn't
> designed as a hillfort, but
> as an exercise in impregnability.

And therein lies the problem of using a model that's pretty but not actually suitable :(

> Actually, the cattle could be fed on thatching and
> straw bedding for some
> time, hopefully providing dairy products until
> slaughtered.

And the Orlanthi of Dragon pass know all about keeping cattle alive when there's no grazing. They do it every winter. I don't know what the answer is: but they do.



Jane Williams                                   

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