Jamaican Caving Notes

River Maiden Cave

May 19, 2005 - 12:00-13:30 EST

District: Thornton

Parish: St Elizabeth

WGS84 L/L: 18 11 39.8, 77 42 34.6

JAD69: 174820 E, 171370 N

JAD2001: 674931 E, 671659 N

Altitude: 150m WGS84

Accuracy: +/- 5m horizontal; +/- 10m vertical

Type: Stream passage

Accessibility: Scramble/swim

Depth: 7m

Length: <150m

Explorers: NSS - 1987

Survey: None

JU Ref: Text - pg 308, Map - none

Entrance size: 3m W x 2m H

Entrance aspect: 240 deg true

Vegetation in general locale: Farm, bush

Vegetation at entrance: Farm

Rock type: Yellow limestone

Bedding: Moderate

Jointing: Strong

Speleothems: Stals

Palaeo resources: None

Archaeo resources: None

Hydrology: Wet

Siltation: Moderate

Sink: N/A

Rising: Active

Stream passage with surface activity: Minor flow

Stream passage without surface activity: N/A

Dark zone: 50%

Climate: Warm, semi-humid.

Bats: None

Bat guano: N/A

Guano mining: N/A

Guano condition: N/A

Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some

Neoditomyia farri: None

Amblypygids: None

Periplaneta americana: None

Cave crickets: None

Sesarma: None seen

Other species: None

Visitation: Occasional

Speleothem damage: None

Graffiti: None

Garbage: None

Ownership: Private

Protection: None

Vulnerability: Low.

River Maiden Cave

May 19, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley

Notes: RS Stewart

We believe that we had the right site for this one - it is at the head of a small stream called the Maiden River, and is located near the JU listed coordinates. There was no NSS map for this one, and because of the confusion with Falling Cave, we aren't 100% on identification. The GPS derived position in the table above is quite good, so whatever cave it is, it won't be lost again.

An entrance several metres wide and high leads over boulders into a large stream passage. The water is deep enough that you have to swim in places. It extends for about 20 metres, and then a higher dry section is reached. To the left, back around boulders, is another section of flooded passage. Straight on, fissures that extend to ground level are reached. We spent a while looking around in this cave, and couldn't find extensions that we could squeeze through. We were in a total of about 100-150m of passage, which agrees with the information in JU, "150+metres of passage, partially explored in 1987".

Between the entrance, and the fissures, a lot of the cave is in the twilight zone. Bats weren't seen, but it looks like it could be an occasional Artibeus roost.

Cave-adapted inverts weren't seen, but as noted, not much of this cave is totally dark.

We're listing this site with a low vulnerability, there being nothing that we saw that was particularly important, although there is a certain amount of siltation from agricultural run-off.