A few years ago, not long after Link Pot was discovered, some friends of mine pushed a tight crawl at the top of Matchbox Aven. They emerged in a low phreatic tube which was followed upstream for 600 ft. to enter the Silver Streamway (refs. (1) and (2)). The other way on from the tight crawl went downstream for about 300 ft., but nobody seemed ready to commit themselves as to how it ended. It was with this loose end in mind that M.Burgess and I went down Link this year in September.

The aven at the end of the survey (ref. 3) was reached and a low crawl, half full of liquid mud, led on. Not long after, the base of another larger aven was encountered, the outlet crawl being cleanwashed by the stream falling from an impenetrable passage at the top. Hands and knees progress on a shingle floor ended where the stream flowed into a silted bedding. To the right, however, a sandy flat out crawl ended at a dry sand choke. We dug this for a while, and broke through quite quickly into the Expulsion Series, a larger phreatic tube going both ways. To the left soon choked with cobbles and sand, but to the right entered a chamber, beneath an aven. Beyond, a short crawl to the left ended in a 10 ft. pitch which, after a "shall we - shall we not" session, was fortunately left until the next visit. To the right from the chamber, another crawl ended in a choke and draughting slot, half full of silt and water. We then left the extension until next weekend.

Mike Thomas, Simon Harland, Graham Proudlove and I descended the following Saturday. Fluorescein was put into the sink at the end of the shingle crawl on the way in. Unfortunately, some of the supply of this had been "accidentally" consumed by Andy Waddington the previous evening. Consequently he was banned from Link Pot until all his bodily secretions returned to normal colour, in an attempt to make sure the "real" dye test didn't get contaminated!

The 10 ft. pitch was descended with the aid of a rope - landing in some of the slimiest mud in Yorkshire, which choked the bedding continuation. Several digs were carried out in the new passages, unfortunately without success. A compass and body length survey was made, and the fluorescein was spotted at the small inlet off Death Row, between Tiger's Inlet and Serendipity in the main cave. Thus, another piece of the Easegill jigsaw is added, though there are still one or two loose ends which will no doubt be followed up when our knees are better.

J. Cordingley

References

Footnote:

On a recent visit to Silver Streamway, Andy Waddington, Eric Hoole and I squeezed into 40 ft. of new passage beyond Solitude Aven, leading on over the downstream sump, and ending in a mud choke. Also a dry branch off to the left of the upstream arm of the streamway was forced for a total of 60 ft. to a mud-filled bedding. I doubt if any more easily accessible passage will now be found in this area of Link Pot.