Émergence de Lamerlie

The summer of 77 having been rather wet, a quick survey, in August, of the right bank of the Célé, downstream of Marcilhac, allows Péjout to note a recent flow of water at the small spring of émergence de Lamerlie, along the D 41, whose name could be the contraction of “la mère Lie”. This spring, opening in the limestones of the Middle Bathonian, was known only to a few rare initiates; a brief glance at the first ten metres suggests that a continuation is possible. On 1 September, Péjout and Coustou slip into the masonry passage that passes under the road and emerge in front of the natural porch of the cavity; Péjout forces a low passage, a former known terminus, crawls up a few gours and stops in front of a sumping pool occupying the entire width of the small gallery. A second attempt is launched on 18 September: the objective, to dive the small sump. Coustou, Héreil and Péjout bring diving equipment but find that it will not be necessary, the sump being slightly unprimed following a late low-water period. They pass the duck-under, a few metres long, and swim for about twenty metres in a more spacious gallery, twice bent at a right angle. A landing and a short opposition in a meander, and the water is found again at the foot of a sand bank. The gallery continues straight for more than twenty metres and the ceiling gradually approaches the pool to disappear entirely at 83 m. from the entrance opening. On the other hand, a short descent, free-diving and using a snorkel, reveals a large flooded joint directly beneath the gallery; Péjout, who had geared up in the meantime, dives and descends to -15 m. where he glimpses a gallery toward the N.N. Having no guide line, he ascends. On the return, an upper, concretion-covered passage is traversed near the first pool. On 2 October, Coustou, Dagès and Péjout are again at work, the last two being equipped to explore the flooded passage glimpsed at the bottom of the joint; the equipment is painfully carried into the terminal gallery. The two divers can then sink into the calm, green-clear water, Péjout in the lead with the Ariadne's thread held by Coustou wedged in opposition near the bottom of the emerged part of the joint. An elliptical-section gallery is traversed for 70 m. to a rise in the ceiling, without any continuation being visible. The return nearly turned dramatic: Dagès, having cylinder problems, had gone back up when Péjout found himself completely entangled and tied up in the Ariadne's thread in the very middle of the flooded passage; a prisoner, and on a single cylinder, he could no longer fin. His air reserve running out, he owed his salvation only to his dagger, which allowed him to free himself and reach the surface in extremis. Then Coustou and Péjout carry out the topographic survey (compass, clinometer and tape) of the cavity while Dagès spots a flooded start at 6 m. depth beneath the first pool. The natural lowering of the pool inside the cavity, even at low water, will never be significant enough to clear the two flooded galleries; the continuation of explorations can only be done by diving or by carrying out serious pumping in the terminal joint. This last solution, easily achievable with a good pump, would offer the advantage of verifying whether a connection exists between the two basins and moreover of possibly evaluating the supply flow rate. The easy clearing of a clay-sand mass at the current terminus also seems worthy of attention.