Grotte de l'Homme-Mort

a rickety iron staircase gives access to the entrance, which lies in the cliff face at a height of 8 or 10 m. The circular opening, 1 m in diameter, leads into a vast chamber 30 m long and 10 m wide, oriented towards the SSW. After the entrance, one climbs back up a few metres. a scree slope occupies the left-hand part of the chamber and comes from the collapse of part of the roof: an opening 2 to 3 m in diameter in the ceiling looks out to the outside. In the left-hand corner, behind the scree, a strongly descending passage about twenty metres long generally holds a puddle of water at the bottom.

After the scree, the entrance chamber descends a little again and is followed by a vast gallery 5 to 7 m wide and 5 to 10 m high which soon turns at right angles towards the WNW and descends on an increasingly steep, very slippery slope. At the turn, near the walls, two traces of digging. About fifteen metres before the bottom of the gallery, in the left-hand wall, above a stalagmitic flow, an upper passage 15 m long is blocked. After 40 m, the gallery ends (-12) in a low passage (height 0.80 to 1 m, a channel has been dug in the hard clay to make progress easier), clayey and damp, about ten metres long and descending, which opens into the Grande galerie. This is 200 m long and has two contrasting parts. In the first two thirds, it has fine regular dimensions (3 to 5 m wide, 4 to 6 m high), on a slight descent, due West; the floor is clayey. At the end of this part, at the lowest point (-23), against the left-hand wall, a pretty 13 m pit. From there on, the gallery narrows (between 1 and 2 m wide) and rises. Halfway along, at a narrow passage, one passes under a horizontal slab sealed to the walls, 20 to 30 cm thick, perhaps the remnant of an ancient ceiling. One reaches the bottom of a new calcited slope rising very steeply on the left; here one is at -16. Beyond, the gallery becomes more broken, the dimensions become more variable while remaining fairly large, and one descends by successive steps and slopes over about forty metres to the terminal chamber, obstructed by a scree slope at -23. In this part, two chimneys are noted, the first on the left, the second on the right (the latter about 15 m high), both blocked.

In the upper network, after 50 m of progress for about fifteen metres of elevation change (0), one climbs a steep face by slipping between the right-hand wall and a vertical slab. The slope here is less abrupt, made of stones and earth, and after about forty metres one climbs a smooth, slippery rocky slope to reach, just below the roof, the 'Martre' crawlway, named after the person who opened it (+10). On the other side, a smooth calcited step of -2; the gallery makes a bend towards the West after a narrow, slippery passage and rises again on a steep slope (40 m from the crawlway, +20). After a constriction begins a passage heading South, narrower (1 m wide in general), at most 2 m high, with a calcited and slippery floor, which rises on a gentler slope for about 30 m.

3 m before the terminus, in the left-hand wall, opens the crawlway made by the S.S.Plantaurel in a thick stalagmitic curtain. It is followed at right angles by a 25 cm high and 2.50 m long squeeze, narrower on the left side. One is then in a passage about ten metres long (+27), ending in an enlarged constriction which gives access to a descending gallery 25 m long, clayey, which ends in a low roof (0.80 m) after which one descends by successive steps of 5 to 6 m into the terminal chamber (+15). It is doubtless due to a collapse and measures roughly 15 m by 5. At the foot of the steps, straight ahead, an impassable passage after a few metres, and on the left a crawlway clogged with clay. In the centre, at the lowest point, a narrow tortuous pit which can be descended without tackle for 5 to 6 m; beyond, progress is stopped by the sticky clay which has discouraged several digging attempts (-10).

Along the gours, the left-hand wall is almost everywhere covered with substantial calcite flows. The floor of the narrowed part of the Grande galerie is formed of an uninterrupted succession of pretty gours, full of water in the wet season, over fifty metres in length. After climbing a stalagmitic cascade and a new narrow passage at the foot of a powerful flow on the left, one reaches the bottom of a new calcited slope rising very steeply on the left.

The floor of the Grande galerie is often occupied, in winter and spring, by large puddles and even by a lake which can reach about fifty metres in length. The 13 m pit most often holds a puddle of water 0.50 or 1 m deep at the bottom. The gours are full of water in the wet season.

One returns to -16, 50 m before the terminus, and climbs the calcited wall on the left; it is very steep at first, often damp and slippery. The 25 cm high and 2.50 m long squeeze, narrower on the left side, must be passed by keeping as close as possible to the right-hand wall.