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The Great Kalahari Hole

rjmrjmrjm

Gone But Not Forgotten
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I found this story in Volume Ten of the Childrens Encycolpedia published by The Amalgamated Press, Ltd, London. Originated and Edited by Arthur Mee.

I found it hard to date the book, but it is post-WWII - if only just - and its very typical British middle-class teaching. The wonderful thing is the fact that in the same book that asks the question 'What is truth?' It also lists nursery-ryhmes and basic lessons in French and Logorhythms (sp?).

This story caught my attention. It seems very contrived and inconistant with itself but I reasoned it must have some basis in fact. I Googled it to no avail, it seems this hole has disappeared. Any ideas?

What is the Great Hole in the Kalahari Desert?

The Kalahari Desert of South Africa is an almost waterless waste west of Rhodesia and stretching to Namaqualand which has little water or vegitation and supports only the native Bushmen. It has been and is traversed notably by a trekking community which established itself on the farther side of the of it in fertile country, but one of its curiosities is so well hidden and off the beaten track that few have ever seen it. It is a mighty hole hald a square mile in area with nearly perpendicular walls and more than 160 feet deep.

So cunningly concealed are the edges of this pit that the wild beasts of the Kalahari sometimes miss their footing and fall to the rocky bottom, and once a man was trapped within for three years.

He was Erlanger, a German who was trekking across the desert with a Boer friend Oosthuizen, and they outspanned near the brink of the great pit. During the night Erlanger's wagon slid down a slope near the edge, burst through the slender barrier of bushes at the edge of the pit and shot down into it. By a miracle he escaped death, though stunned and bruised. but Oosthuizen, believing that he must have perished, moved away from the terrifying place without taking any steps to find him.

Erlanger was in the most dreadful situation that can be imagined. When he found strength enough to look about him he found there was a small stream beginning on the north wall of the pit and running along the bottom to disappear into a cavern. So at any rate he had water, and for weeks he lived on the carefully hoarded probisions in his shattered wagon.

One night a crash woke him and he found that six hartebeestes had fallen into the pit and had been killed. He secured the meat, dried it, and lived on it for many days. But there were many more days to come, for he lived in this prison more than three years. He would have died if it had not been that from time to time other animals fell into the crater: eland, giraffe, even an elephant and rhinocerous. The end of this tale of courage in privation is not a happy one.

Erlanger found it impossible to climb the steep sides of the pit, he then attempted to make a ladder of pegs out of the ruins of the wagon. Many were the failures, but at last, after nearly three years of his solitary confinement, he reached the lip of the hole only to find himself still alone in the desert that had not even the water which had sustained him in the pit. He was almost perishing of thirst when five Bushmen found him and got him back to civilisation. He died two months later, living long enough only to tell his strange and almost incredible tale.

(copied directly from the source)
 
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Aaahhhh .... roight!

And ... your point is?


I remember reading Arthur Mee's Encyclopedias when I was a kid. My cousins who lived over the road had a set. My impression was that they dated from the 1930s, but maybe there were printings in the 1940s. However, that said, I don't remember this particular article. Some of the stuff in them was obviously fabricated, so perhaps this story was just another example.

A pretty weird story though, even for the context. :confused:
 
well there is 'the big hole' in kimberly. Could it be that?

Kimberley developed around this huge hole in the ground, formerly a small hill known as Colesberg Koppie, where diamonds were discovered early in 1871. An observation platform provides a good view of the Big Hole, about 365 m deep and covering an area close on 15,5 ha. Between 1871 and 1914, men toiled to remove some 25 million tons of earth from the site. It yielded about 14,5 million carats of diamonds.

http://www.sa-venues.com/attractionsnc/diamondfields-attractions.htm
 
Could very well be a story based on the Kimberly Hole. But it seems that hole was well known about while Mee's one isn't.

I think it has been copied from a definate South African source and not made up by Mee himself. 'Outspanned' is used which is an english derivation of uitspaned in Africaans.
 
Perhaps modern satellite mapping has revealed the Hole as a myth or exaggeration so it has died out as a text book subject.

I'd have worried if you could hear a quiet hissing from the bottom and a feeling that the earth was shrinking...
 
Quite possibly. I'm not saying the hole exists today, or ever existed, I just find it odd.
 
Sebastian said:
Aaahhhh .... roight!

And ... your point is?


I remember reading Arthur Mee's Encyclopedias when I was a kid. My cousins who lived over the road had a set. My impression was that they dated from the 1930s, but maybe there were printings in the 1940s. However, that said, I don't remember this particular article. :

I remember them into the 1950's.....
But don't remember the story of the Kalahari Hole, although I read them many times......

Arthur Mee, also produced the "Childrens Newspaper", for the time really decent!!!!!!
 
The story was published in an Australian newspaper in January 1933. I don't know whether this was the tale's original source.
HORROR IN AFRICA
The Mysterious Pit of the Kalahari.


Hundreds of miles from civilisation, hidden somewhere amidst the ever shifting dunes of the Kalahari Desert in Africa, there is a mighty hole more than half a square mile in area (writes Mr. Basil Fuller in a Melbourne exchange). With perpendicular walls more than 100ft. deep, this pit is a death trap for animals, and occasionally for men. Only one man is known to have trodden the floor of this terrible hole and escaped. I heard the tale from an old hunter and explorer who had met the man immediately after his dramatic experience. ...

The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder
(NSW : 1913 - 1954)
Tue 17 Jan 1933, Page 6.

FULL STORY: (Page Image and OCR Transcription) Accessible At: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/99502105
 
I've found a complete image for the 1933 newspaper article as it appeared in:

The Evening Star
Dunedin, New Zealand
ISSUE 21369, Friday, 24 MARCH 1933
PAGE 11

KalahariHole-A.jpg
KalahariHole-B.jpg
 
This 1937 version of the story from an Australian newspaper is the earliest one I've found that claims Erlanger survived inside the pit for circa three years. The earlier (1933) versions describe his stay in the pit as lasting weeks or months.

This suggests the Childrens Encyclopedia version (cited in the opening post) derived from this late 1930s mutation of the tale.
Three Years In a Pit.
In the depths of the Kalahari Desert, In Africa, there Is a great pit half a square mile In area and more than 160 feet deep. The walls go straight down, and there are no ledges. The borders of the pit are concealed with bushes and drifts of sand so that animals are frequently trapped In the cavity, usually being dashed to death on the rocky bottom. Incredible though It may seem to be, a man was once a captive in this vast pit, and actually lived there for three years. The man's name was Erlanger, a German who had spent much of his lift) exploring In Africa. He was making a Journey across the desert with a friend, and while he was camped one night, all unknowingly on the very edge of the pit, Erlanger's waggon moved down a slight slope during the night, and crashed Into the hole. Almost by a miracle the man escaped with only a few cuts and bruises. His friend, concluding that Erlanger was certainly dead, took no steps to rescue him. The captive found that there was no fear of his dying of thirst, for he discovered a small stream. There were some weeks' supplies of provisions In the waggon, and various kinds of animals crashed down Into the pit, including hartebeests, warthogs, eland, giraffe, and even an elephant and a rhinoceros. All the animals were dead, and from some he was able to cut meat Into strips which he could convert Into "biltong," or dried meat, by placing It In the sun. All the time Erlanger was working out plans of escape. All efforts to scale the sides of his prison failed, until at last he decided to construct a ladder of pegs from the wood of the waggon. The work occupied the greater part of three years, but in the end the indomitable pluck of the man prevailed, and he reached the ground above the hole. Whilst trying to make his way across the desert he collapsed, and was found half dead by bushmen, who carried him back to civilisation. So broken in health was' Erlanger by his privations that he did not live more than two or three months more.
The Age
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
March 12, 1937, Page 24
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/121366944/
 
I spoke too soon about the earliest claim that Erlanger spent 3 years in the pit. This October 1931 Australian newspaper article says he survived that long. However, this version makes no mention of the Boer Oosthuizen and claims Erlanger was traveling with local / native drivers who fled the scene. Otherwise, this version generally matches the 1933 versions.

Here's the text, as transcribed from a messy OCR dump. An image of the printed page can be accessed at the second link below.
Bordertown Border Chronicle: October 2, 1931, Bordertown, South Australia, p. 3.

The Bottomless Pit of the Kalahari

The following, from on exchange of unblemished reputation, illustrates either the mystery of luck, or the strength of man's imagination:— It would seem impossible that a man could remain marooned for three years in a vast pit, nearly 200 feet deep and many acres in extent, situated in the heart of Africa! Yet this extraordinary experience once fell to the lot of a Dutchman named Erlanger. Travelling in a little-known part of the Kalahari Desert, Erlanger outspanned one evening at the top of a small slope. Having eaten his supper, he fell asleep in his waggon. During the night, a stone became dislodged and the vehicle began to move down the incline with the man inside. Before Erlanger awoke to his danger, the wagon had shot over the edge of a concealed precipice. The native drivers rushed to the white man's assistance, but the wagon had disappeared into the depths of what seemed to be a bottomless pit. They concluded that their master had perished. Their own position in the heart of the Kalahari was far from secure, and so they hastened back to civilisation and safety. By some marvellous good fortune Erlanger was not killed, nor even seriously injured. When daylight came he saw that he was imprisoned in a mighty pit from which there seemed to be no means of escape. A small stream across the bottom of the pit disappeared into a chasm at the foot of the south wall, but there was little vegetation to be seen and certainly no food. Erlanger gave himself up for lost and lay down to die. He fell asleep and, in the middle of the night was awakened by a mighty crash. For the rest of that night he lay trembling, but when morning came he found that the mysterious noise had been caused by the fall of an elephant from the lip of the pit. Erlanger cut the elephant flesh into strips and made biltong. But he soon became less careful in husbanding this meat, for so remarkably hidden was the edge of the pit that animals often slipped over its edges and were killed on the rocks belo. In this way Erlanger's larder was often supplied by the smaller animals. Sometimes giraffes and elands came his way, and on one occasion a rhinoceros fell into the crater with a mighty crash. On another occasion no fewer than six hartebeests fell together into his prison. Erlanger now had one interest in life—to escape. In vain he tried to scale the precipitous walls of his prison. Then it occurred to him to make pegs of the remnants of his ruined wagon, and from these devise a rough ladder. His failures and disappointments were so many that again and again he abandoned the task. But three years after the accident that precipitated him . into the "Bottomless Pit of Kalahari", he made a final effort that was rewarded with success. At last he was free, but now he was faced with privations in the desert almost worse than those he had already suffered. He had almost succumbed to these new hardships when some natives found him and. conveyed him to safety. But his privations proved too' great for Erlanger's constitution. Within two months of reaching civilisation he died.

SOURCE: https://newspaperarchive.com/bordertown-border-chronicle-oct-02-1931-p-3/

PAGE IMAGE: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/23795114
 
Here's an even earlier version of the story, again in an Australian newspaper ...

The Black Hole in the Bush
The Argus (Melbourne)
Saturday, 29 November, 1930
p. 4
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4229259

Both the lpage image and the OCR transcription are badly butchered / scrambled.

However, it appears this 1930 version includes the Boer Oosthuizen and claims Erlanger spent something like three years in the pit.

Edit to Add:
Subsequent searches in the Trove Australian newspaper archive indicate this is the earliest version of the story documented therein.
 
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Wow. Fascinating stuff. I take it that this is all essentially fiction? Like the sort of stuff that commonly got into US newspapers in the 19th century?

Arthur Mee's encyclopediac works were not necessarily thoroughly researched. I don't think he had the resources, not that there was any active intention to mislead. Fascinating bloke, mind. Proper son of the British Empire, of the semi-puritan teetotal type, as opposed to the chota peg Indian hand.
 
Or asked a Bushman? They would know a place like this, particularly, as if you can get into it, it provided free food and water?

Or A Geologist, who would know where viable for sinkholes geology would be?
 
Wow. Fascinating stuff. I take it that this is all essentially fiction? Like the sort of stuff that commonly got into US newspapers in the 19th century? ...

My first guess is that it's indeed a fiction of the urban legend / tall tale variety, widely disseminated in Australia / New Zealand in the 1930s as one of those filler stories analogous to the "silly season" stories in 19th century American newspapers.

The story's primary elements are pretty consistent, suggesting the specimens I found all derived from a common source.

I found it curious that I located no trace of the story being published anywhere other than Australia and New Zealand nor in any type of publication other than newspapers.

The consistent identification of the central characters as being named Erlanger and Oosthuizen made me wonder whether the English version of the story derived from an originally Boer or German source.
 
The 1910 first edition of the Children's Encyclopaedia is accessible in digital form online:

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100662172

This edition does not contain any reference to the Kalahari or anyone named Erlanger. This suggests the story was added to the encyclopedia no earlier than its major revisions in the 1920s.
 
This sounds vaguely reminiscent of Kipling's story The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes.
That's worth a read, even though there is a bit of racism in it.
 
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