WAH SIER, Tongseng (Krem)

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

A cave entrance (8 by 10 m wide) and sinkhole on the stream Wah Sier gives access to a pothole which drops to stream cave passages draining to an unidentified 2nd entrance (resurgence), the anonymous Valley Entrance (Arbenz, T 2007.01.04 -Wah_Sier_p1.pdf- cave plan) indicated near N25°18'37”: E092°30'34” (WGS84) as E2 on the -Shnongrim map- (Arbenz, T 2009.06.11 Shnongrim_Ridge_18.pdf). ETYMOLOGY: Both sar (Jarratt 2005.03.06 Mss: Cave Log, vol. XII, 18/2/05) and ser (Brooks et al 2005 Mss -Meghalaya 2005 Diary- 2005.02.16; JARRATT 2005) stand for the Khasi -sier- or Hindi -sambar- and Urdu -jarau-; a kind of deer (Zoologically: Cervus unicolor). SITUATION 1 (Brooks, S J et al. 2005 Mss: Meghalaya 2005 Diary): At an unidentified location somehow sort of below (in an unidentified spatial relation to) the village of Tongseng (N25°19'28-: E92°30'05” WGS84). SITUATION 2 (YUEN 2005: 53): 30 mins near the village of Tong Seng (sic!). SITUATION 3 (KHARPRAN DALY in: DIRECTORATE … 2006 55): About 30 minutes walk from the village of Tongseng. CAVE DESCRIPTION 2001: (Deer) Big stream into pot 10 by 8 by 15 m deep (Brown 2001.02.08 Mss). CAVE DESCRIPTION 2005.1: A significant new cave (HARRIES 2005) of unknown age. CAVE DESCRIPTION 2005.2: My main system in Meghalaya was a cave called Krem Wah Ser [sic! for: Krem Wah Sier] (also known as the girle cave) … The top entrance was found back in 2002 but the cave had never been explored. The cave consisted of 145 m of easy vertical pitches, which as an initial team of three we had to bolt and rig, a duck which then opened outinto over 3 km of big streamway and side passages. … and found two lower entrances which opened out near the valley bottom making for a fantastic round trip. The decoration of the cave was big and beautiful, huge gour pools some of which were dry and needed borrowed knees and shoulders to stand on to get out of, an incredible big clamshell calcite and amazing streamways with difficult wellie climbs. Andon top of that lots and lots of sparkly rock which I wanted to lick (but never did!) (YUEN 2005: 53). CAVE DESCRIPTION 2006: Krem Sier (or Deer Pot) … consists of a vertical top entrance and two lower entrances, which open out near the valley bottom. The entrance shaft is a series of pitches [note 1], which lead to a duck, beyond which it opens up into more than 3 km of big streamway and side passages. The beautiful fossil [sic! for: relic, abandoned] passages are decorated with huge gours, of which some are dry and need some effort to get out of. The passages are also adorned with lots of rock surfaces that sparkle in the light (KHARPRAN DALY 2006: 55). CAVE POTENTIAL: … made six trips, helping to survey the whole cave except for one side passage which remains unexplored, blocked by a huge five legged spider which I refused to go past (YUEN 2005: 53). Jarratt (2005.03.06 Mss: Cave Log, vol. XII, 18/2/05): Krem Wah Sar (Krem Wah Ser) is still wide open. SPELEOMETRY: Brooks (2005.10.05Mss: Meghalaya 2005 Survey Summary): Survey 2005 Total 3262.41, Vertical Range 145.36 (probably metres). JARRATT (2005): Krem Wah Ser … one of the finest caves on the Ridge with 3.26 km of superbly decorated passages entered via c.40 m of pitches and with a resurgence exit. … An upstream sump in this cave possibly connects with the 1.8 km long Krem Muid, itself being adjacent to the 13.5 km+ of the Krem Umthloo system. Sheen, Robin F. (2005.08.20 Mss: Meghalaya 05): A fine river cave reaches over 3 km and a resurgence exit. CAVE LIFE: KHARPRAN DALY (in: DIRECTORATE … 2006: 55): The cave abounds with cave life including blind cave fish. KOTTELAT, HARRIES & PROUDLOVE (2007: 43 table 2) list Krem Wah Ser (Krem Wah Sier, Tongseng) among the caves in the Sutnga area (sic!) in which D. Harries found in February 2005 what, at a first glance, looked like the cave dwelling nemacheilid loach Schistura prob. papulifera (Teleostei: Balituridae) abundant in pools of streamway. JARRATT (2005) apper to hint to the presence of Arachnida: Aranea: Sparassidae: conf. Heteropoda sp. in Krem Wah Ser as he narrates how the new girls Jo and Lesley were very impressed with the cave but took some time to get used to the monster spiders that seem to be even larger than normal in this area.Mss: Meghalaya 2005 Survey Summary): Survey 2005 Total 3262.41, Vertical Range 145.36 (probably metres). JARRATT (2005): Krem Wah Ser … one of the finest caves on the Ridge with 3.26 km of superbly decorated passages entered via c.40 m of pitches and with a resurgence exit. … An upstream sump in this cave possibly connects with the 1.8 km long Krem Muid, itself being adjacent to the 13.5 km+ of the Krem Umthloo system. Sheen, Robin F. (2005.08.20 Mss: Meghalaya 05): A fine river cave reaches over 3 km and a resurgence exit. CAVE LIFE: KHARPRAN DALY (in: DIRECTORATE … 2006: 55): The cave abounds with cave life including blind cave fish. KOTTELAT, HARRIES & PROUDLOVE (2007: 43 table 2) list Krem Wah Ser (Krem Wah Sier, Tongseng) among the caves in the Sutnga area (sic!) in which D. Harries found in February 2005 what, at a first glance, looked like the cave dwelling nemacheilid loach Schistura prob. papulifera (Teleostei: Balituridae) abundant in pools of streamway. JARRATT (2005) apper to hint to the presence of Arachnida: Aranea: Sparassidae: conf. Heteropoda sp. in Krem Wah Ser as he narrates how the new girls Jo and Lesley were very impressed with the cave but took some time to get used to the monster spiders that seem to be even larger than normal in this area.