AA CAVE (Lübke 1953)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

LÜBKE (1953) created a cavers' tale about fissure caverns at one Field of a Hundred Fissures near Mihintale in Ceylon of which the majority are completely unexplored and hence known to be almost 800 m deep (LÜBKE 1953: 134) or nearly three thousand feet [914 m] deep (LÜBKE 1958a, 1958b: 162) and up to 20 m wide (LÜBKE 1953: 134) or seventy feet [21 m] across (LÜBKE 1958a, 1958b: 162). Needless to say that the chasms are said, according to bogus chroniclers, to have come into existence on occasion of an eleven day long earthquake in the year 1645 AD. Most of the fissures have only a small opening but with increasing depth they open into gaping chambers. The untrodden fissures are entered only every now and then, when skillful Singhalese climbers descent on swaying rope ladders into the abysses to release undomesticated animals, which had fallen down during their nightly expeditions, with a shot from their agony. CAVE DESCRIPTION: The originally German tale (note 1) by LÜBKE (1953: 13) has been translated into FRENCH (LÜBKE 1955), Spanish (LÜBKE 1961) and English (LÜBKE 1958a, 1958b: 162-163): The … caves of the Field of a Hundred Fissures near Mihintale in Ceylon … constitute a striking example of the formation of fissure-caverns in historical times. The caves of this region came into being during a tremendous earthquake that afflicted the island of Ceylon in 1645. For eleven days on end, so the chroniclers relate, subterranean forces shook the northern part of the island, while clouds of smoke and dust rose more than three thousand feet high above the land, and sulphur-yellow flames oured out of the sundered earth, burning and blackening everything for miles around. Today this district is riddled with fissures, many of them seventy feet across and nearly three thousand feet deep. Most of these chasms have only a narrow opening at the top, but widen out lower down into yawning chambers in the rock. The majority are completely unexplored. Only occasionally do praciced Singhalese climbers venture into the abysses down shakky rope ladders, in order to finish off the wild animals which have fallen into them during nocturnal prowls.) has been translated into FRENCH (LÜBKE 1955), Spanish (LÜBKE 1961) and English (LÜBKE 1958a, 1958b: 162-163): The … caves of the Field of a Hundred Fissures near Mihintale in Ceylon … constitute a striking example of the formation of fissure-caverns in historical times. The caves of this region came into being during a tremendous earthquake that afflicted the island of Ceylon in 1645. For eleven days on end, so the chroniclers relate, subterranean forces shook the northern part of the island, while clouds of smoke and dust rose more than three thousand feet high above the land, and sulphur-yellow flames oured out of the sundered earth, burning and blackening everything for miles around. Today this district is riddled with fissures, many of them seventy feet across and nearly three thousand feet deep. Most of these chasms have only a narrow opening at the top, but widen out lower down into yawning chambers in the rock. The majority are completely unexplored. Only occasionally do praciced Singhalese climbers venture into the abysses down shakky rope ladders, in order to finish off the wild animals which have fallen into them during nocturnal prowls.