Explore "The Green World" by Hal Clement on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Mitsuitei had been almost right in his prediction that the pit would be full of water. Only the fact that the land sloped a trifle -- they were not right on top of the little hill -- had saved it. As it was, several feet of water were in the bottom, and a good deal of mud had washed in from the two sides facing the edges of the crack. The other two, much better braced by deep-reaching roots, had held firm.
After some thought, Lampert used the little robot again. He started it at the bottom of the pit on the downhill side and drove almost horizontally toward the river. The two hundred meters of "neck" permitted the mole to emerge from the slope farther down. When it was withdrawn, a small drain hole was obtained. Several more of these were drilled, and the pit lost its water fairly rapidly.