The Underground Drainage 



a massive bed of limestone, but was not flat, as parts 

 had fallen away. The shaft entered the chamber near 

 its centre, which accounted for our being unable to see 

 the walls of the lower parts of the shafts from above. 

 At either end was a pile of stones and sand. The length 

 of the chamber was from north to south, and on ascending 

 the talus at its southern end we found a passage 

 running in the same direction. This we were able to 

 follow for a considerable distance, until eventually we 

 were brought to a standstill by the passage becoming 

 less than a foot in height. We calculated that at the 

 farthest point reached we could not be very far from 

 the end of the cave which led to our main camp, but as 

 yet we had seen no trace of the stream, the passages 

 being quite dry. 



On returning to the foot of the shaft, we endeavoured 

 to discover what became of the water, and found that it 

 sank amongst the stones at the bottom of the pool. As 

 we could find no other way out of the chamber, it was 

 obvious that if we wished to trace the flow of this water 

 we should again have to use fluorescein. 



Before attempting to return we again packed up our 

 dry clothing in the oil-skin cover and donned the wet 

 ones. When we started on our exploration of the 

 chamber we had left the life-line dangling at the foot of 

 the ladder, and were now surprised to find that it had 

 been hauled up. However, we signalled for it to be 

 lowered, and soon saw an elongated cylindrical object 

 being lowered down to us, spinning round as it came. 

 This we found to be wrapped in several pairs of stockings, 

 and on removing these to see what might be within 

 were rewarded by finding a thermos flask filled with hot 

 M 177 



