AA CAVE (Arbenz 2010.02.14)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

A perennial stream of water issues from the east facing cave entrance (0.5 m wide, 1.5 m wide) to an apparently more than 20 m long narrow winding [cave] passage with very sharp walls and an active streamway, narrowing to 0.3 m in width and 1.4 m in height. The passage goes on but ist too tight to follow. Permanent drain, part of the Krem Labit Kseh (Arbenz, T 2011.10.28 Mss -Henry Dawson 16thFeb.2010- Krem Rastom 14.2.2010). ETYMOLOGY: No autochthonous, indigenous or locally known name has been identified for this especially attractive and fascinating cave which the teacher Thomas Arbenz from Matzendorf dedicated to the guide Rastom Manar from Kseh (note 1). SITUATION: At the base of an east facing 8 m high limestone cliff and on 14th February 2010 at the level of the water on the orographically left (locally western) bank of the Kopili River in the area north-east of Kseh (St. Joseph church near 25°25’24.0”N: 92°35’32.9”E: circa 880 m) and due east of Umkyrpong (25°26'04”N: 92°34$$48”E: 782 m). APPROACH: In case of approaching from the jetty (25°25'49.1”N: 92°36'15.1”E: 717 m) on the Kopili River, get somebody to take a boat downstream … for roughly 300 m to the GPS position on the Meghalaya side [west]. Get the boat along the cliff face to the [cave] entrance at water level (Arbenz, T 2011.10.28 Mss -Henry Dawson 16thFeb.2010- Krem Rastom 14.2.2010). CAVE LIFE: An unidentified kind of 1 bat (Arbenz, T 2011.10.28 Mss -Henry Dawson 16thFeb.2010- Krem Rastom 14.2.2010) and, for that matter, presumably either a bat in the sense of an implement with a handle and a solid surface, usually of wood, used for hitting the ball in games such as baseball, cricket, and table tennis or, perhaps, a mainly nocturnal mammal capable of sustained flight, with membranous wings that extend between the fingers and connecting the forelimbs to the body and the hindlimbs to the tail (Chiroptera).$48”E: 782 m). APPROACH: In case of approaching from the jetty (25°25'49.1”N: 92°36'15.1”E: 717 m) on the Kopili River, get somebody to take a boat downstream … for roughly 300 m to the GPS position on the Meghalaya side [west]. Get the boat along the cliff face to the [cave] entrance at water level (Arbenz, T 2011.10.28 Mss -Henry Dawson 16thFeb.2010- Krem Rastom 14.2.2010). CAVE LIFE: An unidentified kind of 1 bat (Arbenz, T 2011.10.28 Mss -Henry Dawson 16thFeb.2010- Krem Rastom 14.2.2010) and, for that matter, presumably either a bat in the sense of an implement with a handle and a solid surface, usually of wood, used for hitting the ball in games such as baseball, cricket, and table tennis or, perhaps, a mainly nocturnal mammal capable of sustained flight, with membranous wings that extend between the fingers and connecting the forelimbs to the body and the hindlimbs to the tail (Chiroptera).