SKELETON POT (Leakey's)
30.750000,77.766700
Description
A shallow pothole or a 3 m wide cave entrance, which leads to a horizontal cave with a chamber at a T-junction, is said to exist in the Adawa (Udawan) area (note 1). SITUATION 1946: »Skeleton Cave« is reached by proceeding »… down valley on left of R.A. Sink until the main stream is reached at the bottom of the valley. There is a vague native path on the left bank of the stream & it passes the entrance of the cave while skirting round a place where the stream goes through a steep rock gorge. The cave lies 200 feet [60 m] from the stream. [… The cave] entrance is about 10 ft across leading to a chamber with passages going up as well as down, with a cow skeleton in lower cave. Bear droppings also noted inside« (Glennie 1946.08.01 Mss: Bodhyar area potholes). SITUATION 1951: »A few hundred yards further south [from Royal Artillery Sink] a ridge of precipices curves round a spur in the fork of two streams which join at their foot, and flow into the Tons. The right hand cave [sic! for: streambed?] has a shallow open pot almost in the stream bed where in the same year, a party of us came upon bear droppings deposited there an hour or so previously« (LEAKEY 1955: 58). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1946: »Skeleton Cave« with an entrance about »about 10 ft across [3 m wide] leading to a chamber with passages going up as well as down, with a cow skeleton in lower cave« (Glennie 1946.08.01: Mss). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1951: »Skeleton Pot« consists of a »shallow open pot almost in the stream bed« (LEAKEY 1955: 58-59). PROSPECTS: »There are two fallen in potholes [illegible] face on the left bank below skeleton cave« (Glennie 1946.08.01 Mss). CAVE LIFE: Glennie (1946.08.01 Mss) recorded having identified the skeleton a cow in addition to of bear droppings from the cave but LEAKEY (1955: 58-59) explains that the bear droppings were in the streambed while the cow skeleton was inside the cave which also was the day roost of a »colony of [tiny] bats [Chiroptera] the size of wrens« (note 2). LEAKEY (1955: 59) points out that »We never saw the same sized bats in the same cavern.«
NOTE 1: »Adawa« (Glennie 1946.08.01 Mss; Leakey 1946 June: Bodhyar Pothole Map; LEAKEY 1955: 58) is indicated as »Udawan« near N30°45'10”: E077°46'10” (Everest 1830): 2093 m asl on the Survey of India, 4 Inch to 1 Mile Forest Map series, sheet 53-F/13 S2 (ca. 1940). NOTE 2: Wren (Aves: Troglodytidae) a small short-winged songbird found chiefly in the New World with many genera and numerous species, in particular the very small Troglodytes troglodytes (winter wren), which has a short cocked tail and is the only wren that occurs the Old World.
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | BLASTED HOLE | ||
| 1.5 | SKY RIFT | ||
| 1.8 | KANDWA POT 6 | ||
| 1.9 | KANDWA POT 5 | ||
| 1.9 | KANDWA POT 3 | ||
| 1.9 | KANDWA POT 4 | ||
| 1.9 | KANDWA POT | ||
| 1.9 | KANDWA POT 2 | ||
| 1.9 | Royal Artillery Sink |