WAHLONG CAVE (Ende 2003) (aa -)

Location

An unspecified cave entrance (unidentified shape, unidentified dimensions, unidentified orientation, unidentified characteristics) is said to give access to a kind of vertical cave (pothole) in which an accumulation of 18.38 metres has been measured lengthwise. ETYMOLOGY: No autochthonous, indigenous or locally known cave name has been identified for what was simply christened »Dead End Pit« (Barbara Anne am Ende deepcaves.net/India02 accessed 15.05.2003). IDENTITY: Till today speleologically fully unexplored remains the question if the allegedly 18.38 m deep »Dead End Pit« is -- or is not -- the same as the also approximately 20 m deep –>Wahlong Cave (Warren 2004) dubbed »Krem Shely« (Warren, Todd 2004: 253). SITUATION: Barbara Anne am Ende understood that the entrance to this cave lies not only in an inexplicable setting but also at an unexplainable location, complete with an unidentified GPS position, and somewhere in the vicinity of the village of Wahlong (note 1) but without identified spatial relation to this village (note 2). CAVE DESCRIPTION: Barbara Anne am Ende draws the attention of the karsthydrological world to having discovered that a relatively »small waterfall pours in and causes water droplets« (deepcaves.net/India02 accessed 15.05.2003). Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 09/02/2016

NOTE 1: ka wah (Khasi, noun) a stream, a river (SINGH, N 1906: 244); a mountain stream (ALLEN, W J 1858: 61), binomial: ka wah - ka um (SINGH, N 1906: 244). long (Khasi, verb) is, to exist, to become (SINGH, N 1906: 118); to be, become, betide (SINGH, N 1920: 39, 40, 44). u máw long (Khasi, noun) a big stone or rock (SINGH, N 1906: 130); crag, rock (SINGH, N 1920: 100, 444).u soh long (Khasi, noun), a lemon (SINGH, N 1906: 208; BAZELY 1992: 34). NOTE 2: Wahlong, literally: Big Stream (of water), is the same as »Wolong« (Major Bivar in: MEDLICOTT, H B 1865: 391 table) and »Wullong« (MEDLICOTT, H B 1865: 421). In November 1995 I recorded at a populated place called Wahlong the GPS position (±150 m) 25°12'29”N: 91°43'25”E : circa (±200 m) 800 m asl (WGS84 modified from 25°12'27”N: 91°43'35”E Everest 1830, Gebauer, H D undated 1995 November unstable 4-channel GPS Garmin 4) where the Survey of India sheets 78-O/12 indicate a village called »Mawthangsokkhyllum« (edition 1912) or »Mawthangsok Khyllum« (edition 1937), apparently a contraction of "maw" (stone) + "thang" (to burn, deflagrate, enkindle, fire, light) + "soh khyllum" »a sour fruit resembling a guava« (SINGH, N 1906: 207). Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 09/02/2016