He eventually found the ship's cat lying on a coil of rope.

A vertical or horizontal stroke indicated numbers 1 to 9, a hobble for cattle 10 to 90, a coil of rope 100 to 900 and a lotus 1,000 to 9,000.

Many of the other guests were mountaineers, clasping coils of ropes and pitons.

One of the caves also yielded neatly arranged coils of rope, used for rigging and 'left for the next expedition, one that never came', she said.