E.A. Martel, later to be the doyen of speleologists and the author of some 20 books and 780 papers on the subject made his first cave visit in 1864 at the age of five. It was to the Grotte de l’Arveiron (or Arveyron), the glacier cave draining the Mer de Glace near Chamonix. The glacier was in retreat and the form of the cave was constantly modified until it disappeared altogether about 1873. A recently discovered photograph shows the cave as it was some five years before Martel’s visit.