Gouffre Igue de Fonte

The conduit of the loss, dug along a bedding joint, is very low and heavily silted, and becomes impassable after about twenty metres.

At the spring, the entrance is through a vault 2 m wide and very low. Beyond that, progress becomes easier in a paragenetic gallery of regular section whose height varies from 0.8 to 1.6 metres and whose width varies from 1 m to 1.6 m. The ceiling then lowers and one can only stand up again 400 metres further on, where the gallery widens to form a small chamber. A silted flat-out passage where one must crawl for about 40 metres follows and ends on a stony, eroded floor some 516 metres from the entrance.

The vault and walls are curiously coloured with a whole palette of reddish browns, yellow and white. Gours follow one another.

The first 30 metres of the spring nevertheless remain very aquatic; work (SCG) aimed to lower the level of the accumulated water.

The vault of the spring is passed after work (SCG) aimed at lowering the level of the accumulated water. The first 30 metres remain very aquatic, then progress becomes easier in the gallery. After the gours, the ceiling lowers and one can only stand up again 400 metres further on. A silted flat-out passage where one must crawl for about 40 metres follows. All that remains is to consider le retour (the return), which promises to be laborious along this single gallery where one is, so to speak, never standing up.

This cave is the fifth longest in the département and certainly the first in the physical effort it demands.