MOILA TOAD HOLE
30.774700,77.790800
Description
An unspecified cave entrance gives access to an about 33.6 m deep pothole and 80 m long cave (note 1), which got its name (note 2) from the remains of a toad embedded in a stalagmite (speleothem), is situated 150 m from an edge of Moila Tibba (Moila Hill). Judging from the nicely drawn cave plan provided by R. D. Leakey (note 3), Toad Hole must have been the most beautiful cave before "potholing" became an army scheme (note 4).SITUATION: About »1/2 mile [0.8 km]« from –>Moila Swallet (Leakey 1942.12.03 Mss: Himalayan Caves, sheet 2), »the third pothole [sic! qua: Fourth pothole on Moila Tibba was found] on a hill slope down a small hill-top-closed-in-valley on the south end of the Moila Hill top. […] It has not the remotest trace of a catchment area [note 5], except two slight swallets between it and a precipitus [sic!] face of the hill about 50 yds. [46 m] away behind some trees« (Leakey 1942.12.03 Mss: Himalayan Caves, sheet 1). POSITION: 30°46'29”N: 77°47'27”E: 9000 ft. [2743 m asl] (Everest 1830; Glennie, E A ca. 1972 s.a. Mss: Particulars). CAVE DESCRIPTIONS 1942: »70 ft. pitch, fine cave with profusion of formations & specially fine stalagmites in large numbers. Many bones cemented to floor [including one] one frog. Possible way on with some clering?« (Glennie 1942.10.05-19 Mss: Diary). »We explored a large number of caves finding one which was quite a show cave, remarkable for immense numbers of stalagmite column pillars of all sizes up to 5ft. in height« (Glennie, Edward Aubrey 1942.11.06 Mss: Letter to Platten, Gerard; GLENNIE 1943). »This pothole is known as "Toad Pothole" because of a beautifully stalagmited up toad skeleton found on the floor. It consists of an 80 ft. [24.4 m] pitch down through the tight entrance, and lands one in a fine chamber about 60 ft. by 35 ft. [18.3 by 10.7 m] and averaging 6 ft [1.8 m] high. The chamber is full of fine formations [speleothems]. A series of about 50 ft. [15.24 m] of passage dropping down some 20 ft. [6.1 m] over boulders brings one to a lower chamber about 40 ft [12.2 m] wide and 10 ft. [3 m] high, also full of fine show cave formations« (Leakey 1942.12.03 Mss: Himalayan Caves, sheets 1-2). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1946: »Toad Hole. The attempts to get further have been as follows. Duke's Folly [note 6]: A tight crawl passage of the inlet variaty [sic] in the [deleted: main] top chamber at the top of the floor slope, where the Dukes spent many hours with a crowbar, & where there is only room for one — extension of about 18 ft. [5.5 m]. 2) Point "A" just below where one starts to go to the lower chamber. Cracks in the floor looked likely, but a digging attempt got nowhere. 3) Point "B", a bedding plane cave seen beneath a big boulder. Considered to be just space left between a piece of fallen roof to the floor. 4) Point "C" or R.A. Dig [note 7]. This is in the lowest point in Toad Hole and is where the water disappears. The R.A. started to dig here, and the Dukes continued it, but got nowhere. The water appears to filter straight down through boulders, and not into a cross drain as was first thought. 5) The place at the end of the lower cave marked by you was explored by me in 1942 & as I was satisfied it did not "go" I have not troubled about it since. However, it evidently needs further investigations. 6) Mystery Chambers, or Loose Aven as you call it, is a place where one can work upwards some distance, and look up into a chamber big enough for 2 men at the top. One can't see the whole of this chamber but to get in would involve pulling out heavy stones on top of one« (Leakey 1946.08.20 Mss: Letter to E. A. Glennie, sheet 4). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1951: A »… hole the size of a tennis ball which seemed to have no bottom […] was opened out to a man-sized hole developing into an eighty foot [24.4 m] shaft that entered a fine chamber sixty feet by thirty five feet [18.3 by 10.7 m]. From this, a low passage leads to another sloping chamber with equally fine formations that is some forty feet [12.2 m] long, sixty feet [18.3 m] wide and ten feet [3 m] high. Fifty yards [45.7 m] from the hole the edge of the hill also falls away, this time in a huge precipice« (LEAKEY 1955: 59). CAVE LIFE: »Many bones cemented to floor [including one] one frog« (Glennie 1942.10.05-19 Mss: Diary). A »beautifully stalagmited up toad [Buffo?] skeleton found on the floor (skeleton identified by Bombay Nat. History Society)« in addition to »what looked like sheep and small cow bones some way from the entrance in these two chambers [at the far bottom end of the cave]« (Leakey 1942.12.03 Mss: "Himalayan Caves" sheet 1). NOT SEEN literary sources: LEAKEY, Robert D (1945): [ unknown title ].- Victory: The Weekly of India Command ( l i ), (26 November 1945, pages: 17-19): Discovery of Toad Hole by a youth chasing a butterfly [indicated by Craven, S A 1991.02.26 personal correspondence]. LEAKEY, Robert D (1946): [ unknown title ].- Contact (New Delhi & Madras), vol. 3, (no. 49, 5th September 1946, page 4) reports Troops of the 2nd Duke of Wellington's are potholing beyond Chakrata and gives two photos (probably by E. A. Glennie) of Toad Hole [indicated by Craven, S A 1991.02.26 personal correspondence].
NOTE 1: Passage length and vertical range gathered from cave plan "Frog Pot" (Leakey 1942.10.08).NOTE 2: Initially called Frog Cave (Glennie, E. A, 1942.10.05-19 Mss: Diary, entry 1942.10.07) or Frog Pot (Leakey 1942.10.08 cave plan) but later, when the "frog" skeleton had been determined as a toad (by "Bombay Natural History Museum"), called Toad Pothole (Leakey 1942.12.03) or simply Toad Hole (Leakey 1946 June, 1946.08.20; Glennie 1952b: 91 figure 14). NOTE 3: Leakey's cave plan titled "Frog Pot" (18 by 23 cm), dated 8/10/42 (1942.10.08), signed RDL, scale 20 ft to One Inch (1: 240) without scale bar; ground plan complete with north arrow and corresponding "View West" (elevation projected horizontally to west or ±0°/270°). GLENNIE (1952b: 91 figure 14) provides what looks more like a splotch than a doodle titled Toad Hole, signed E.A. Glennie 1943 and claims, far from convincing, a Grade 4 Survey. NOTE 4: Leakey (1946.08.20 Mss): »Altogether 186 people from the Royal Artillery, Bedfs. & Herts, & Duke of Wellingtons have been down either or both Moila Swallet and/or Toad Hole. It is unquestionably the best military "scheme" most of us had, and involves far more walking & hill climbing than most other schemes —and what's more— the chaps like it! There is no need to ask for volunteers to go, the Cy. commanders get pestered by them, & the only slag is that our units at Kailana can't spare much training grant on it, and also some of the officers don't like it is undignified & may get dirty.« NOTE 5: Leakey uses the term "catchment area" to designate an obvious stream bed (headwaters) or closed depression draining surface water straight into that cave entrance enterable by soldiers or humans. NOTE 6: Leakey was soldiering with the 2nd Duke of Wellington's Regt. [Regiment] at Chakrata (Leakey 1946.08.20). NOTE 7: »You will notice from the notes that I have had to invent names for all the little odd pieces of potholes in the Bodyar area. It adds considerably to their attractiveness, and atleast [sic] identifies them« (Leakey (1946.08.20 Mss). NOTE 8: SIMPSON & BALANCE (1949), in: Cave Science (Settle: British Speleological Association), Vol. 1, pages 287-288: K.W. Ballance tested the tensile strength of Army surplus telephone wire, which was used to produce ladders for descending Moila Swallet, Moila Toad Hole and the two Swiftlet Holes.
Documents
Bibliography 22/06/2016History
EXPLORATION HISTORY: 1942.10.01 (circa): Robert D. Leakey (1942.12.03 Mss: Himalayan Caves) narrates how Toad Hole »was discovered by myself while chasing a butterfly during the first day of caving before Col. Glennie had joined us at Budyar. I noticed a small hole in the ground just big enough to push a tennis ball through, which attracted my attention because I could not see its bottom. [… It] took a lot of opening up.« Glennie, Edward Aubrey (1942.10.05-19 Mss: Diary): »5th: Found Leakey had discovered new cave. Very narrow vertical pitch 30 ft into chamber 40 ft. high or so. Not yet descended.« 1942.10.06: E. A. Glennie (1942.10.05-19 Mss: Diary) with one »Michael« (Glennie's son?), Mary Hazelton (Glennie's niece), R. D. Leakey, A. E. Leydon, a certain »Wheeler« (?) and a number of unidentified »coolies« (porters), chail saprassies, etc, spent the morning poking around in –>Moila Swallet, »then on to new cave [Frog Cave, later: Toad Hole]and down 70 ft. pitch.« 1942.10.07: E. A. Glennie (1942.10.05-19 Mss: Diary): »Down Frog Cave and took photos, up to lunch, then Leakey went down with two coolies, Self & Drainpipe, and did good excavation, some gas but way getting clearer & should get through soon. Leyden [sic! for A. E. Leydon] sketching.« 1942.10.08: E. A. Glennie (1942.10.05-19 Mss: Diary): »Got off lazily in the morning and arrived at Frog Pot about 11 am. decided to ladder it & go down after lunch, so did one spell of excavation in Drainpipe of Moila Swallet. […] At 2.30 pm went down Frog Cave and I surveyed, and remainder continued photos. Came out at 6.15 pm.« 1944.10.29: E. A. Glennie and / or H. J. Larwood collected two specimens of Indosidama moila Turk 1945 (Opiliones: Laniatores: Assamiidae) from »Toad Hole Cave« (TURK 1948: 259). 1945: »Toad Hole and Moila Swallet were entered by upwards of a hundred British troops on tackle made partly from plaited field telephone wire [note 8]. Photography was also successfully carried out by using "808" explosive and plastic explosive (without detonators of course) as substitute for flash powder. Digging was carried out at likely places in these potholes, without results« (LEAKEY 1955: 59-60).
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.4 | MOILA SWALLET | ||
| 0.4 | MOILA SWALLETS (Glennie 1946) | ||
| 0.5 | BUDHER CAVE, Kotlia | ||
| 0.6 | MOILA RUCKLE HOLE | ||
| 0.6 | MOILA MINE | ||
| 0.8 | MOILA CEDAR POT | ||
| 1.2 | MASAK VILLAGE POTHOLE | ||
| 1.7 | Royal Artillery Sink | ||
| 1.7 | CHOWKIDAR POT 2 (Lower) |