AT HANGMAN'S WOOD, GRAYS.
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18 inches. Unfortunately, the existence of this rat-hole was not
revealed to us till there were lights in both these adjacent chambers.
In this case, of course, the interest lies in the thinness, yet perfect
preservation, of the partition. The position of this rat-hole is
precisely similar to that of the very much larger holes between
Nos. 7 and 8 and Nos. 8 and 12, and it was curious to notice around
the rat-hole the claw-marks of large dogs, badgers, and other much
more powerful animals than rats. In this case the partition had
remained firm ; but similar assaults may often in other instances
have proved successful, especially when each imprisoned creature
naturally made for and attacked the same spot. No. 9 was found to
be, as usual, a six-chambered pit, and we were enabled to enter the
three on the other side of the shaft by means of a hole already
existing between the two lateral chambers most remote from No. 3.
Between Nos. 9 and 10 a broken partition—possibly caused by the
pressure of rubbish from the side of No. 10—admitted us to the
latter, but it became necessary to tunnel in order to secure a more
trustworthy entrance than that obtainable by creeping through the
mass of sand and gravel around the shaft. Another short tunnel
gave access to the remaining chambers of No. 10. From this pit we
tunnelled in two directions, on the one hand into No. 11, on the
other into No. 5. By penetrating into the latter we obtained the
advantage of a current of air from No. 3, through Nos. 9 and 10,
No. 5 having an open shaft. A broken partition between Nos. 5
and 6 (see section on Plate iv.) gave us admission to the latter, the
rounding off of the adjacent chambers of the two pits being as well-
marked as in any of the instances already given. The two chambers
of No. 6 nearest No. 5 both terminate at their distal ends in three
rather deep recesses, while the third and only other accessible
chamber of this pit is destitute of them. The tunnel through the
sand which gave us access to this third chamber was one of our latest
pieces of work, and was ventured upon in consequence of our seeing
how well the vertical sides of the mounds had stood where we had
pared them away in 1884. In this chamber we found evidence that
the debris in No. 6 was the result not merely of falls down the shaft,
but of the giving way of part of the roof of the pit. And at its
mouth the probable cause of this downfall was shown to be the
thinness of the chalk roof, which appeared to be about 15 inches.
A hole in the side of this third chamber admitted us into two
chambers of No. 15, which, however, appeared to be, like No. 6, a