SWIFT HOLE, 2nd (Upper)
30.753300,78.006700
Description
A circular pothole, about 1.8 m in diameter, drops into a rift pot (about 1.8 by 6 m wide) to hit "178 feet" (54.25 m) down a floor (up to about 2.5 m by 6 m wide) sloping down over small lime stone boulders. CAVE DESCRIPTION 1945: »At the start the shaft was about 6 feet [1.8 m] wide but it closed in at the ladder end after a hundred feet [30.5 m] to a width of three or four feet [0.9 or 1.2 m]. The ladder was seldom against the rock but never more than sic inches [15 cm] from it, so the last part was a very pleasant chimney descent, with the rungs to provide foot holds. Although the surface opening is a circular opening about six feet [1.8 m] in diameter, on descending through it, the shaft was at once disclosed as a liner rift about six [deleted] eight [deleted and corrected into an unreadeable "ster" or so] wide at the widest part and about 20 feet [6 m] long closing in at both ends. It retained this character all the way down. The rock was very smooth and without calcite formations. The bottom, reached after a vertical descent of 178 feet [54.25 m], was an expanded rift about 8 feet [2.5 m] wide at its widest part sloping down over small lime stone boulders. There was no feature of special interest« (Glennie 1945.04.09 Mss: Postscript, sheet 2). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1948: »The 178 ft [54.25 m] pitch of upper Swift Hole is in the narrow end of a joint crack. About 30 ft [9 or 10 m] down is a choke stone + [and] when I went the ladder piled up on this and hung down on both sides. mostly on the wrong side + [and] I had to get it free. After that the ladder is usually within 6 inches [15 cm] of one face and a large part of the way one can rest ad lib. [ad libitum] pressing the ladder against one face with ones feet + [and] your back against the other face. It is a nice chimney but the rock is smooth. It opens up a bit at the bottom but it is a place of no interest. I am pretty sure it is a choked aven into the lower Swift Hole chamber. Please take tubes with spirit + [and] collect any bugs you see with a paint brush …« (Glennie 1948.07.14 Mss: Direction to find Swift Holes) CAVE DESCRIPTION 1951: »Swiftlet Holes […] Their entrances are some six to ten feet [about 1.8 m and 3 m] across […]. Upper Swiftlet Hole reaches a depth of 178 feet« (LEAKEY 1955: 60, cave plan and elevation on page 61) equalling 54.25 m. CAVE POTENTIAL: Upper and Lower Swift Hole »are probably connected at their lower ends but the passage is well blocked« (LEAKEY 1955: 60). SITUATION 1944: »… in wooded hill slopes about half a mile [800 m]away« (GLENNIE 1944a: 596) from –>Swiftlet Pot. SITUATION 1945: »A little below on the North side of the ridge called Biuna Dhar [and] about 200 yards North West of point 8837 [note 1] amongst trees« (Glennie 1945a: 82). SITUATION 1948: »Go along the path from Swiftlet Pot to the small fields at Marawa Khera Chak [note 2]. From this point [note 3] take the goat track heading West up the spur. Continue on the track up the spur at A [note 4], then slant diagonally up the hill side passing just behind two or three small [fistises? fissures?] on the grassy slope, and reach the crest of the ridge close to these + [and] if you strike it right, you will find on dropping about 3 feet [1 m] down on the wooded side of the crest a track which drops steeply west then turns sharply NE by a tree and leads back to the small spur which runs just below where you left the crest. The track skirts Upper Swift Hole which is on a flat place on top of the spur, a large hole about 6 feet [1.8 m] in diameter« (Glennie 1948.07.14 Mss: Direction to find Swift Holes) Glennie (1948.07.14 Mss) indicated the two neighbouring Swift Holes on the Survey of India Four Inch to One Miles Forest Map 53-J/1.S2 at a spot on the western flank of a hill rising about 75 m in a direct line south-west of a point (N30°45'18”: E078°00'35”: 2590 m asl) where the mule path from Chakrata (14.5 miles = 23.3 km + circa 500 m) to Biunatach Forest Rest House (circa 800 m) reaches at its maximum height (near –>Swiftlet Pot, 20 m north of the path) and switches from the eastern to the western flank of the Biuna Dhar (ridge). SITUATION 1951: »Swiftlet Holes. These two potholes are about 25 yards apart and pierce the forest covered hill slope a little below the north side of the ridge about 200 yards N.W. [north-west] of point 8837 feet. (Lat. 30°45'11” Long. 78°00'18”). Their entrances are some six to ten feet across but they are difficult to find because of the vegetation growing round them, making them perfect death traps for the unwary« (LEAKEY 1955: 60). POSITION 1: 30°45'11”N: 78°00'18”E: 8550 ft = 2606 m asl (GLENNIE 1944a: 596). POSITION 2: 30°45'12”N: 78°00'24”E: 8575 ft = 2614 m asl (Glennie 1948.07.14 written). POSITION 3: 30°45'12”N: 78°00'24”E: 8600 ft = 2621 m asl (Glennie 1948.07.14 marked). POSITION 4: 30°45'11”N: 78°00'18”E: 8550 ft = 2606 m asl (LEAKEY 1955: 60). CAVE LIFE: GLENNIE (1944a: 596) and E. J. Douglas observed in May 1943 »Himalayan Swiftlets« or Collocalia fuciphaga (note 5): »… diving down straight out of the sunlight into the black shaft and going down in steep spirals in pitch darkness to their nests 300 feet [91 m] or so below ground. Nests started 50 feet [15.24 m] down, but the majority was far below the bottom of the ladder.« Glennie (1945.04.09 MSS Biuni Dhar) estimated in the last week of September 1944 a number of about twenty nests in Upper Swift Hole.
NOTE 1: Point 3887 (a trigonometrical station) itself is marked on Survey of India Four Inch to One Mile series Forest Map 53-J/1 S2 (circa 1940) near N30°45'07”: E078°00'15” (Everest 1830): 2693.5 m asl. NOTE 2: The hamlet »Marawa Khera Chak« is indicated near N30°45'14”: E078°00'42” (Everest 1830) on the Survey of India Forest Map No. 53-J/01.S2. NOTE 3: »It was at this point that you [Robert D. Leakey] turned East to go to Lakki Mandl [or: Lakhi Mandal (?), the »Lakha Mandal« near N30°43'45”: E078°06'40”] on your first trip to [Bandarfunch?] with Leydon [A. C. Leydon]« (Glennie 1948.07.14). NOTE 4: Letter "A" is pencilled near N30°45'10”: E078°00'33”: 8575 feet = 2615 m asl on the Forest Map fragment (Glennie 1948.07.14). NOTE 5: »Swifts and swiftlets (Apodidae) of the genera Collocalia Gray 1840 (Chaeturinae) of the Old World, and Aeronautes Hartert 1802 (Apodinae) of the New World … are gregarious, generally non-migratory, and built durable nests in extensive, compact colonies at high, sheltered, hardly accessible places. They are among the fastest flying birds in the world« (MAA 1980: A preliminary revision of the genus Myophthiria Rondani (Dipera: Hippoboscidae.- Revue Suisse Zoologie, Geneve, 87, 3: 836). The genus Collocalia (swiftlets) »… ranges from Reunion, Mauritius any Seychelle Islands in the western Indian Ocean eastward to the Marquesas and Society Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, and spreads northward to Assam [Meghalaya], Burma [Myanmar], south-west China (Yunnan, Szechwan, Hopeh), Tongkin and Micronesia (Caroline Is., Mariana Is.) and southward to New Caledonia and the northern tips of Australia. The taxonomy of the genus is exceedingly difficult and complicated because the interspecific differences are very slight, the intraspecific variations often considerable and while different populations of the same pecies may occur in different isolated caves, one same cave may house two or more species« (MAA 1980: 840). NOTE 6: »With Douglas I found two [undescended] pots about 300 ft. [91 m]deep« (Glennie 1944.02.13 letter to Gerard Platten, edited in GLENNIE 1944b: 64, 66).
Documents
Bibliography 01/06/2016History
EXPLORATION HISTORY: 1943.05: An unacknowledged goat herd (note 6) guided E. A. Glennie and E. J. Douglas from –>Swiftlet Pot to »two open holes in the wooded hill slopes about half a mile away [from Swiftlet Pot]. A stone thrown down seemed to take between 4 and 5 seconds before hitting the bottom with a dull thud. All my rope ladders were tied together making a total of 152 feet [46.3 m], the last 30 feet being very old and flimsy. Down this Douglas climbed and at the very foot of the ladder found himself hanging in space far out of sight of the bottom, which must have been at least 100 feet [30.5 m] further down [estimated -76.8 m], and so up again — hard work at nearly 9,000 feet [2'743 m] above sea level« (GLENNIE 1944a: 596; Glennie 1944.02.14). 1944.09 Last week of September: Glennie, Edward Aubrey (1945.04.09 Mss: Postscript) »… descended the Upper Swift Hole, this being the first [successful] descent of this hole. Difficulties arouse about thirty feet [9 m] down, since the ladder piled up on the other side of the stone and it was troublesome clearing the 220 feet [67 m] of heavy ladder. There was no further difficulty.«
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.0 | SWIFT HOLE, 1st (Lower) | ||
| 0.4 | SWIFTLET POT, Dehra Dun | ||
| 6.2 | LAKHA MANDAL TRAP WELL | ||
| 6.7 | PUDIA BEND CAVE | ||
| 9.8 | PANDU GUPHA, Lakha Mandal | ||
| 10.3 | LAKHA MANDAL TUNNEL | ||
| 10.3 | LAKHA MANDAL KARST CAVE 1 (aa -) | ||
| 10.3 | LAKHA MANDAL SHELTER 2 | ||
| 10.3 | LAKHA MANDAL SHELTER 3 |