SNIANG (Krem)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 31/05/2016

A steeply descending (talus) cave formed in a huge collapse, including fallen karst pinnacles, opens at the base of a bamboo and jungle clad shakehole (about 30 by 50 m wide and 25 m deep) quite suitable as a lair for a boar as it is »hemmed in with sheer cliffs and chasms and overshadowed by trees« (Aristot., Hist. An. 578a.25-578b.6) to »ravel in the quiet and darkness« (Hom., Od. xiii.409). SITUATION (Gebauer 1999.03.29): East of the villages Lelad (Lailad, Leilad) and Tangnub, probably in Umlatdoh or in Lakadong Limestone, and above the bottom end of a valley which runs eastwards from the Shnongrim -Tangnub Ridge to the valley of the Letein (Litang, Litien). APPROACH (Simon J. Brooks 2000.02.14 Mss: Krem Sniang): From Lelad village, take the fair-weather road / Shaktiman track towards the south. Some 250 m from the village, an 'S'-bend is met some 100 m before a group of houses. Take a footpath to the left of the road (east) and follow this downhill through a graveyard. Beyond this, keep to the crest of a small ridge. The shakehole lies some 300 m from the graveyard and to the right of the footpath. A seasonal stream enters the shakehole from the north side. CAVE DESCRIPTION: A choice of three cave entrances (one 0.3 m by 0.8 m large) at the foot of the south wall of the shakehole leads into larger space between boulders. From here the way on consists of a tortuous route through boulders, consisting of short climbs and crawls (on average 0.6 by 0.4 m), interspersed with the odd chamber. A cool air current in the cave was noticed 2000.02.14 but there was none on 1999.03.29. Few solid walls are evident and much of the route down is via large, jammed and somewhat unstable boulders. A 3 m pitch requiring a ladder is met some 60 m into the choke. CAVE DESCRIPTION 2: »… Paul Bareh guided us to the deep, jungly doline of Krem Sniang. Here Mark and Roger pushed down through a maze of enormous and unstable boulders to reach a short drop needing a ladder. Mark, Simon and I then surveyed 83 m, down the laddered drop and on to the dangerously choked, possibly 10 m "pitch" head which marks the end of the cave for anyone not contemplating suicide. A good draught was evident so there must be something big below« (Jarratt 2000.02.14 Mss: Cave Log 2000: 14/2/00). CAVE CONTENTS: Mud and rounded gravel in crawls. TACKLE: 5 m tether, 6 m ladder. CAVE POTENTIAL: A length of 89.9 m and a vertical range of –46.6 m has been claimed but no cave plan was ever produced. PROSPECTS: Good but only if the boulders can be passed, which would require a serious dig. The way on (follow the draught) lies through boulders of questionable stability. CULTURAL HISTORY - Etymology and cave folklore: One Christmas in the 1980ies (possibly 1981) a pig (in Khasi: sniang), destined for the Christmas dinner table, escaped and fled down the shakehole into the cave. Pursued by the villagers it was retrieved with the aid of a rope and presumably the feast took place as planned. CAVE LIFE: On 14th February 2000, »bats, harvestmen, crickets, heteropodae and "snot gobblies" were noted« (Jarratt 2007 Mss 14/2/00) -- Chiroptera, Opiliones, spiders (conf. Heteropoda sp.), crickets, millipedes, and larval fungus gnats or "snot gobblers" (Diptera: Mycetophilidae).