230 REPORT ON THE DENEHOLE EXPLORATION
With some difficulty we cleared the greater part of the floor of the
chamber nearest to No. 3, and then found its height to be about
14 ft. 6 in. The accumulation of material in this shaft-closed pit
obliged us to tunnel from a recess towards the end of one of the lateral
chambers to the corresponding chamber on the other side of the shaft
in order to get access to the whole of the pit. The tunnel being
completed, we found that the three chambers of No. 7 most remote
from No. 3 differed from those first entered in having no side-recesses
towards their ends. We also discovered that the partition between
Nos. 7 and 8 had been broken, and that we could get through into
the three nearest chambers of the latter pit. The hole in the partition
was nearly circular in form, and about 6 ft. in diameter, and, were the
floor cleared of debris, would be seen to have its base some 7 or 8 ft.
above it. The adjacent chambers on both sides were carefully rounded
off, and the break had the appearance of being entirely the result of
accident, and contrary to the wishes of the original makers. We
were again obliged to tunnel in order to get into the chambers on the
other side of the shaft of No. 8. We then discovered that the existence
of a similar but smaller hole in the partition between Nos. 8 and 12
gave us admission to the latter. In this case the rounding off and
apparent completion of the adjacent chambers of the two pits
previous to the break in the partition were even more strongly
marked than in the preceding one. On both sides we had the some-
what steep slope usually seen at the ends of denehole chambers—
slopes up which fallen dogs or badgers would instinctively climb—as
their claw-marks in such positions abundantly testify. Indeed it
seems quite possible that holes such as those between Nos.
7 and 8, and Nos. 8 and 12 may have owed their origin, though not
their present development, to the frantic exertions of imprisoned
animals.
Another break in the partition between Nos. 12 and 13 admitted
us to a single chamber of the latter, the only one at present open to
us, this pit appearing to be too much choked up by debris to be
worth any attempt at further exploration. But we obtained admission
to the whole of No. 12 by means of a tunnel connecting the two
chambers nearest to No. 8, and found it to be entirely exceptional
in plan. In No. 2 we have a pit of the same nature as the ordinary
six-chambered pits, but with only five chambers actually excavated,
the sixth being represented only by a slight recess. But in No. 12
the two primary chambers, that leading to No. 13 and the