The Caves of Rock Spring

Rock Spring district, in a hydrological and speleological sense, is a very large catchment located in the southeast corner of the Cockpit Country. It collects rains from about 25 sq km of terrain, and feeds it to the northwest, where it eventually disappears in the junction of the yellow and white limestone that is exposed at Rock Spring. Between these two points is a section of alluvium that is used extensively for farming, and through the length of the valley flows the Mouth River.

The map shown below, (Fig RS-1), is based on a Digital Elevation Model for Jamaica, and clearly shows the catchment areas for both the caves of Rock Spring, (northwest), and Quashies/Bristol, (northeast). The primary direction of flow is indicated, but water is also collected from the hills on either side. For the Quashies/Bristol system, it will be seen that the central area where the caves are located is lower than, and surrounded by, hills on all sides. For the caves of Rock Spring, it is not as obvious on the DEM map that the waters collected must find their way underground to exit the catchment, but this is also the case. A map that shows the geology of the district, (Fig RS-2), in particular the area of exposed yellow limestone, will help to make things more clear, and this will be found below the DEM.

Fig. RS-1

Fig. RS-2

On the map above, the area that has been left transparent to show the topo map beneath is primarily yellow limestone at the surface. The inlier, and the white limestone, have been coloured yellow and grey, respectively. The pocket of alluvial soils is pink. The flow down the catchment is indicated. It can be seen that when the local run-off, including that of the Mouth River, gets to the lowest point, in the northwest, it runs smack into the white limestone. This is at a point where cockpit karst begins, and the terrain to the northwest is solid hills and valleys. The average height of the land slowly decreases in a continuing line into the Cockpit Country, but the hills that are met by the river at Mouth Maze rise up high enough to block the flow, and force it to follow the junction of the yellow and white limestone through bedding planes underground. In places downstream, it pops out again, (at least the upper part of it does, because there is believed to be an entirely subsurface flow under this, via Mouth Sink), to flow on the surface through cockpit bottoms where erosion has opened pockets back down to the junction, but before too long the cockpits no longer extend down to the yellow limestone, and the entire flow remains underground until it reaches the northern edge of the Cockpit Country.

At Rock Spring, a complex network of river caves has formed because of the concurrence of a large catchment, and the junction of the yellow and white limestone at the downstream end. Separate from the river caves are several other sites that are high and dry, (e.g. Carambie), but the majority of the sites in the district are very wet labyrinths that have multiple entrances.

The rest of these introductory notes will address the river caves, specifically, how to find them, and what to expect. When one is first confronted with the many entrances, and many passages, involved in the system, it can be very confusing determining what is what. We will attempt to bring clarity to the situation by presenting below a guide to finding, and conducting research in, the caves of Rock Spring, but we do so with a warning - there are parts of the system in which it is very easy to get lost, and very easy to drown. Please do not use the information presented below to get yourself killed, and if you do, don't blame us.

We will refer to the map, RS-5, that accompanies these notes often in the course of the following discussion. The positions are GPS derived, and were obtained by the JCO during the PiP Project. The accuracy, (listed in the notes for the particular caves), is such that they will enable all of the entrances to be easily found.

First, it must be noted that some of the upstream entrances, (sinks), have been degraded by siltation, and access is not guaranteed. Because of this, listed entrances can appear to be nothing more than muddy sinks. This is the case for Farmyard Cave, which is the first site at the upstream end of the system. In the past, entrances to a stream-passage could be followed upstream to a sump, and downstream to a rocky section where the water continued underground to Printed Circuit. The entrances to Farmyard Cave are currently mud-choked. They are an entry point for water that runs off of well-cultivated land in a catchment above. One cannot now enter the cave, other than to slide on your belly through mud for about 20 metres, (the drainage is now greater on the surface, to sink at Flux U, and water backs-up above the entrances to Farmyard in the rainy-season).

The main flow into the Rock Spring system is the sink of the Mouth River, but it is not restricted to this. Additional input occurs to the east at Printed Circuit, Pool Cave, and Swanga Cave, as well as at cockpits located to the west of the Mouth River sink. Of these secondary sources, Printed Circuit is the greatest. The last of the downstream surface activity, and caving access, is found at Too Far Glade, the third of three cockpits past Mouth Maze, where the system hits the surface for the final time. In between these two ends is a whole heap of passages, and we'll try to explain things as best we can. An area plan of the passages, produced by the work of the KHE, (Fig. RS-3), will be found further down, and we suggest that this be referred to while reading the following description of the overall system.

Mouth River, and the cave it sinks into, Mouth Maze, are the core of the system. There are two entrances for the river, the year-round Sink, and the rainy-season flood entrance which is the Main Entrance to Mouth Maze. The Sink sumps after a short distance, and access to the system is from the Main Entrance, (shown on the RS-5 map as Mouth Maze - Sink). Inside the cave, a network of rectilinear, joint developed passages ultimately feeds the bulk of the flow to the north-northwest to rise at Good Hope Glade, (shown on the RS-5 map as Mouth Maze - Good Hope Sump). This cockpit floods during rainy times, but a seasonal streambed will be found during dry times. On the other side of the cockpit, at the end of the seasonal streambed that rises at Good Hope Glade, the water sinks again into Good Hope One Cave. This sink was a choked mud-pit in April/May 2005, perhaps due to the effects of Hurricane Ivan, the autumn before. On the other side of a saddle, in the next cockpit, the river rises again. This is the north entrance/rising of Good Hope One Cave. From here, another seasonal streambed meanders across the cockpit to sink on the north side at Good Hope Two Cave. Again, by passing through a saddle, one will find the river rising once more at the north entrance/rising of Good Hope Two Cave. Another seasonal streambed meanders across the glade, until it sinks at Far Enough Cave. This sink, the entrance to Far Enough, was mud-choked during our visit in May, 2005. One last cave is found in this downstream end of the system, and this is Too Far Stream Cave. It is not part of the direct river-course, but rather seems to be a tributary that apparently links with the river underground, to the northwest of Far Enough. The immediate source of Too Far is a rising spring, (very pleasant to look at), on the south side of the cockpit in which it is found, (this cockpit is quite spectacular and will be described in the notes for Too Far). From Far Enough and Too Far onward, there are no more surface break-outs known, but one must suspect that there is potential un-tapped by the KHE due to the distance into the bush, and the amount of hiking involved.

To the west of the Mouth River, at Rock Spring, there are the two Harties caves, entered via a collapse in a saddle in a hill above the present day water-course. Harties Cave-2 in the past probably acted as part of the original water-course, or as an overflow during flooding - the development was certainly stream-based, and fossil meanders can be seen not far into the cave. Harties Cave-1 is somewhat higher, with the passages on the same level as the upper part of Cave-2, but is also stream-developed. Because these two caves were originally one, until the collapse split them, one can suspect that like Cave-2, there are also passages on a lower level in Cave-1, not currently accessible.

Immediately to the east of the Mouth River is found the best known cave in the district, usually referred to as the eponymous Rock Spring Cave, but more correctly called Printed Circuit in order to clarify which of the many caves in Rock Spring is being talked about. Like Mouth Maze, it is a labyrinth of stream-passages, but at Printed Circuit the system is more consistent in its hydrological activity. Water over a metre deep flows year-round through the main collector, fed by an array of sinks on the upstream side, and possibly also subterranean flow from sinks further to the south. The outflow joins the waters of the Mouth River to carry on to Good Hope Glade.

Further yet to the east of the Mouth River are two smaller stream-passage caves, Pool and Swanga, that parallel the Mouth system. They both sink, rise, and sink again with the suspected next rising at Greater Swanga, a site not listed in JU. We must take a minute now to address the confusion in the name for Swanga Cave. The people of the district know Swanga as Banga Cave. We are positive that we had the right site for the target, Swanga, that is listed in JU, because of scaling from the area plan found below, and the map of the interior of the cave matching what we found. The confusion arises because there is indeed a site called Swanga by the local people. It is an enormous shallow shelter cave, with a rising at the bottom, that is found north of Pool and Swanga-Banga, in a cockpit. It is in the direction of flow for both Swanga-Banga, and Pool, and we suspect it to be associated with them. We surmise that the KHE, when asking of existing names for the caves, heard Swanga and Banga, did not quite catch the "Banga" because it was said in Patois, became confused, and assigned the name Swanga to the wrong cave. In this report we will refer to the two sites as Greater Swanga, the giant shelter cave, and Swanga-Banga, the listed stream-passage cave. Curiously, Greater Swanga was not listed by the KHE, perhaps because there is no actual cave that can be entered, just an impenetrable rising.

It would be suspected that the waters of Pool and Swanga-Banga, after rising again in the Greater Swanga cockpit, eventually somewhere join the general flow that has passed through Mouth Maze, but this is undetermined. We did not have time to pursue this, because of priority on finding the listed caves, and a corresponding lack of time to work on new sites.

One more stream cave, Iron Maiden, is found even further east. This cave seems to be not directly connected to the system - the water that sinks here heads off to the northeast to rise in a cockpit south of the JU position for Burnt Hill Caves.

Before we conclude these introductory notes, we should discuss an observation made during the expedition regarding the rising of the Mouth River system, believed to be at Fontabelle. I will quote below an excerpt from our entry for Fontabelle Rising:

"In 1965-66, the Karst Hydrology Expedition used lycopodium spore tracing to determine that the source of the rising was at Mouth River, in Rock Spring. From March 29 to April 3, 2005, our team had been carrying out work in the caves of Rock Spring, including Mouth Maze. In fact, we had visited about ten of the caves in the district during this period, and were very familiar with the internal hydrological conditions. We were on the tail-end of an extended drought, with bush-fires common in the district, and the caves of Rock Spring were as dry as they usually ever get. This had been fortunate for us, because there was no flood-risk to deal with.

On the morning of April 3, when we departed Rock Spring, it was still dry. In the afternoon, while we were exploring the undescended pit at Barbecue Bottom Hole-2, north of Rock Spring, some light showers fell in the area but there was no sign of storms in the direction of Rock Spring. When we arrived at Coxheath that evening, we were told that Bottom Pond, associated with Fontabelle rising, and the rising itself, had both been high for a couple of days, and the road to Friendship was flooded at Bottom Pond. This is a regular occurrence in rainy-season.

We found it quite surprising that Fontabelle was high, because we knew for a fact that there had been no rain in Rock Spring for over a month, other than the showers that day which were after the time when Fontabelle reached its high-point. We are left with a question: where did the water come from? It certainly wasn't Rock Spring.

The team with the KHE who conducted the initial tracing were experts in their field, and one must accept their determination at face value, but we cannot help think that there must then be a second source, perhaps to the west of Rock Spring. Near Heading, there are sources such as Wilson's Run Cave that might be considered, but this is speculation.

The morning of April 4, in Windsor, we observed that the Martha Brae River, below Windsor Cave, was still low, and clear. There was no activity at the Flood Rising resurgence. We can therefore readily accept that the source of the Windsor resurgence could be Rock Spring, because the dry conditions at the SE end would have been reflected in the low waters at Windsor. Whatever the other source might be for Fontabelle, it is not associated with the Windsor Cave resurgence."

There is no doubt in our minds that there is something not quite right in the currently believed flow from Rock Spring to Fontabelle. We, of course, have no problem accepting that the Windsor resurgence has its source at Rock Spring, because we have seen no evidence to suggest otherwise, but that connection is not established. By looking at the DEM, it seems the input for Windsor could be from Booth, (see Fig, RS-4, following the Rock Spring area plan). There is essentially a long valley that extends from east of Bamboo Bottom, (i.e. Bad Hole), most of the way to Booth. This is conjecture on our part, but clearly, the hydrology of the Cockpit Country is not entirely understood, and could use more work.

Fig. RS-3

Fig. RS-4

The map that accompanies this section, (Fig. RS-5), indicates the positions for the known caves in the Rock Spring district that were visited by the JCO as a part of the Parks in Peril Project. The positions are GPS referenced, and have an accuracy as given in the notes below, and the database that accompanies this report.

The tracks shown as dashed black lines on RS-5 indicate the best routes that we found to Good Hope One, Good Hope Two, Far Enough, and Too Far. The eastern of these is the best way in and out of the Far Enough and Too Far glades. The track will be easily located if you bring a copy of the map, look carefully, and use a compass en route.

A complete list of the known caves and sinkholes of Rock Spring follows. Those indicated in bold were included in the PiP Project, and detailed notes will be found for them in this chapter. The others in the list, targets excluded from the PiP Project, have also been included in the chapter, but with information limited, in most cases, to what is known via Jamaica Underground, and notes consisting mostly of a brief explanation of the reason for their exclusion, and our best advice for finding them. Positions for the excluded caves are given only in JAD69 Metric Grid coordinates, as received from JU, because the accuracy is undetermined and positions derived from transformations to other datums could prove to be misleading.

Caves marked with ** are JCO discoveries/explorations and are not found in Jamaica Underground or databases derived solely from it.

Information for the caves included in the project is in the following format: first, a table that presents a number, but not all, of the main parameters of the assessment; second, a field report on how the assessment was conducted. All of the data collected will be found in the digital database that accompanies this report, Appendix A.

The Caves of Rock Spring:

Burnt Hill Caves

Cane Patch Sink

Carambie Cave

Comb Cave

Crayfish Cave

Far Enough Cave

Farmyard Cave

Good Hope Cave

Good Hope One Cave

Good Hope Two Cave

Greater Swanga Shelter**

Harties Cave-1

Harties Cave-2

Iron Maiden Cave

Mouth Maze

Mouth River Sink

Pool Cave

Printed Circuit Cave

Swanga Cave, [aka Banga Cave]

Too Far Stream Cave

Burnt Hill Caves
District: Burnt Hill	Parish: Trelawny
JAD69: 190200 E, 185000 N
Altitude: 400m JAD69	Accuracy: +/- >100m horizontal; >30m vertical
Type: Dry passage	Accessibility: Walk-in
Depth: 0	Length: 26m
Explorers: GSD - 1951	Survey: N/A
JU Ref: Text - pg 108; Map - none
Comments: This was on the list of caves that we hoped to do, but was a low priority for two reasons: It will be difficult to find, because it is in a district with few residents, and is listed to be over a kilometre into the bush. The cave is reported to be small, and to consist of only 25 metres of 3m wide passage. Time did not allow us to search for the cave, and it has been put on the JCO to-do list.

Cane Patch Sink April 2, 2005 - 8:30-12:00 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: Undetermined
JAD69: 189000 E, 183300 N	JAD2001: Undetermined
Altitude: 520m JAD69	Accuracy: +/- 100m
Type: Impenetrable sink	Accessibility: Impenetrable
Depth: N/A	Length: N/A
Explorers: JCC - 1971	Survey: None
JU Ref: Text - pg 111; Map - none
Entrance size: N/A	Entrance aspect: N/A
Vegetation in general locale: Farm	Vegetation at entrance: Farm
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: N/A	Palaeo resources: N/A
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Wet	Siltation: Heavy
Sink: Pooled	Rising: N/A
Stream passage with surface activity: Flooded	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: 0%.	Climate: N/A
Bats: 0	Bat guano: N/A
Guano mining: N/A	Guano condition: N/A
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: None	Neoditomyia farri: None
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: None
Cave crickets: None	Sesarma: None
Other species: None
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: None	Garbage: None
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Low.

Cane Patch Sink

April 2, 2005

Team: Conolley, Slack.

Notes: IC Conolley

18 18 14.8, 77 34 21.8; Datum: OGB-C [Position does not plot in right locale]

Stagnant water present. Possibly a choked sink

18 17 54.8, 77 34 44.4; Datum: OGB-C

Another opening.

Deep pool found downstream of above position travelling West

[Many sinks in the district were mud-choked during our visit as a result of siltation during Hurricane Ivan. In the listed position, Conolley and Slack found two sites, neither of which permitted entry. This site may be currently lost. Stewart]

Carambie Cave March 31, 2005 - 11:00-14:00 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 23.7; 77 33 46.9 (Main)
JAD69: 190365 E, 183735 N	JAD2001: 690476 E, 684024 N
Altitude: 515m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Labyrinth	Accessibility: Walk-in
Depth: 15m	Length: 335m
Explorers: GSD - 1951	Survey: GSD - 1951
JU Ref: Text - pg 112; Map - pg 113
Entrance size: "Light": 3m W x 6m H	Entrance aspect: "Light": 115 deg true
Vegetation in general locale: Farm	Vegetation at entrance: Farm
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Stals, flowstone, helictites	Palaeo resources: Undetermined
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Dry	Siltation: N/A
Sink: N/A	Rising: N/A
Stream passage with surface activity: N/A	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: 50%.	Climate: Warm, semi-humid.
Bats: <500	Bat guano: Little
Guano mining: Historical	Guano condition: Dry/compact
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some	Neoditomyia farri: Some
Amblypygids: Undetermined	Periplaneta americana: None seen
Cave crickets: Some	Sesarma: None
Other species: Spider, xx
Visitation: Occasional - local.	Speleothem damage: Some
Graffiti: Some	Garbage: Some - bottle-torches, etc
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Medium. There is a small bat-roost in the dark-zone, and several troglobites.

Carambie Cave

March 31, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack.

Notes: RS Stewart

Main Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 23.7" N, 77 33' 46.9" W; Alt: 515; Accuracy: +/- 10m; Aspect: 115 deg true
Dark Cave Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 22.6" N, 77 33' 46.7" W; Alt: 515; Accuracy: +/- 10m; Aspect: 85 deg true
Back Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 24.7" N, 77 33' 50.6" W; Alt: 525; Accuracy: +/- 15m; Aspect: 265 deg true

Carambie Cave is in the Rock Spring district of south Trelawny, and was visited by the JCO as a part of the Parks in Peril Project. It is one of the few caves in the district that is not a river cave, and is instead high and relatively dry. The cave is easily found, with two entrances on a hillside that faces the Spring Garden to Burnt Hill road.

This morning, we started the day with the full team of four assembled, and drove in Ivor's car from Miss Buckle's, where we were renting rooms, to the general area where the cave was indicated to be in Jamaica Underground. Because the cave is locally well-known, it was soon found, visible from the road, and we were parked and ready to go. Although the most obvious entrance is only about 30m from the roadside, it is also about 20m above the road, and the hill that one must ascend to reach it is rather difficult, since there is nothing to grab onto other than a barbed-wire fence. The slope is of dirt, bare of vegetation on the straight track that leads up, and a slip would result in a rapid slide down that would deposit one back on the road after a final drop of about 2m, (to then possibly be crushed by a passing car). Needless to say, we were all careful on this dodgy little approach.

There are three entrances to the cave; two facing the road, and one around back on the far side of the hill. The most obvious roadside entrance, to the north, is about 5m high and 3m wide, facing east, and leads into a large chamber known as the "Light Cave", that is entirely in the twilight zone. At the back of this is a small opening into a larger chamber, this opening situated about 6m above the floor of the second chamber. Although it could be climbed down if one were desperate to do so, vertical gear is advisable. About 50m south of the first entrance, a second entrance is found, smaller than the first, and this leads into the so-called "Dark Cave". Access from this entrance to the rest of the cave is possible without the use of vertical gear, although a bit of a scramble is necessary to reach the chamber that is seen from the back of the "Light Cave".

We had taken a quick look in the first part of the cave, inside the first entrance, before finding the second entrance and going in by this route. I soon found the scramble into the rest of the cave, then went around to the far side of the large chamber seen from the opening to the Light Cave, and located the back entrance. This third entrance faces 265 deg, and requires a bit of a scramble, found not far into the cave. A GPS position was taken, and then I rejoined the others. Ivor deemed the site to have been attractive to Taino in past ages, and so while he and the others looked for any evidence of this, I looked for critters.

Much of this cave, estimated at 50%, is twilight zone. In the central chamber a small bat-roost is found, with numbers estimated at under 500, and the main species fruit-bats. There are no substantial guano deposits, but some extraction has taken place by local people anyway. The material extracted appears to have been old, compact deposits, along with the underlying mud. Used bottle torches are present, and fertilizer bags. Surprisingly, I didn't see any Periplaneta americana, (roaches). Observed invertebrate predators were one species of spider, and Neoditomyia farri, (predaceous fly larvae). Fungal gnats were present. The numbers of Cave Crickets, U. cavicola, were rather low, but this might have been a seasonal variation since we in the late stages of a drought. Historically, two Coleoptera, (beetles), Leiodinae and Catopinae, from this cave were studied by Dr Stewart Peck.

The bat-roost has seen enough disturbance that only a fraction of the roosting space is being used, although it's expected due to the large percentage of twilight zone that it would be preferred by fruit-bats, and they seem to come and go periodically. The spider xx that was collected should prove to be the most interesting critter observed, and identification is underway.

The cave is formed in the yellow-white limestone junction. Stals, flowstone, and small helictites are found, with the latter located in small nooks at the sides of the chambers where humidity is higher. It should be noted that although much of the cave is dry, there is a section that was quite damp, especially for the dry-season that we were in, with most of the water entering through percolation from above.

No evidence of Taino usage was seen, and having done what we needed to do, we left the cave, made our way carefully down the hill to the car, and moved on to our next target.

We're listing this cave with a medium vulnerability because of the bat-roost found here, and the trog Araneae and Coleoptera. There has been a history of guano extraction, now infrequent because the main deposits are gone. There is no immediate threat, but it should be recognized that the site is of interest.

Carambie Cave

March 31, 2005

Notes: DK Roggy

The light cave entrance can be seen from the roadside, at the top of a steep hill and lying under a small escarpment. The hillside had been set alight recently and thus the ground was bare. We found the footing to be difficult as we made our way up the dry, clumpy soil up the 30 to 40 degree slope. From the light cave chamber one goes straight back and comes to a wall with an opening into a larger chamber, what I would call the dark cave.. Through the opening is a steep and slippery slope. Since Jamaica Underground told us that the dark cave entrance would be an easier way to go through, we went back out, traversed along the edge of the escarpment and came to the dark cave entrance.

From the dark cave entrance we went into the large dark chamber that we could see from the light cave. The light of the morning sun showed through the light cave entrance, then through the hole at the end of the light cave chamber and into this one. Where the light struck within the dark cave I found historical graffiti. As far back as 1821 people had written their names and the year, apparently with coal, and in a rather elegant fashion. This led me to wonder whether we might find Taino petroglyphs or pictographs in the same area, as it seemed an obvious place to do so. With the assistance of Ivor and Elizabeth we looked around, but found no such evidence of Taino occupation.

Comb Cave
District: Mouth River Area	Parish: Trelawny
JAD69: 187000 E, 184000 N
Altitude: 400m JAD69	Accuracy: +/- >1km horizontal; >30m vertical
Type: Undetermined	Accessibility: Undetermined
Depth: Undetermined	Length: Undetermined
Explorers: McGrath - GSD	Survey: N/A
JU Ref: Text - pg 127; Map - none
Comments: This site is lost at this time. JU gives us, "Site is marked on McGrath field map, but not since located".

Crayfish Cave April 2, 2005 - 9:00-9:30 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 31.5; 77 34 10.4
JAD69: 189675 E, 183977 N	JAD2001: 689786 E, 684266 N
Altitude: 490m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Sumped sink	Accessibility: Dive
Depth: 0	Length: 6m
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 135; Map - pg 136
Entrance size: 2m W x 1m H	Entrance aspect: 140 deg true
Vegetation in general locale: Farm, scrub	Vegetation at entrance: Scrub
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Undetermined
Speleothems: Undetermined	Palaeo resources: Undetermined
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Wet	Siltation: Moderate
Sink: Active	Rising: Undetermined
Stream passage with surface activity: Flooded	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: >90%.	Climate: Cool, 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: Undetermined
Other species: No trogs. This is a short passage that is flooded in much of it. We could not get into to it to look, but it is likely that stygobites are present, crabs, Sesarma spp, as they are found in most of the other stream passages in the district, and the name Crayfish suggests that shrimp were observed here by the KHE.
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: None	Garbage: Undetermined
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Medium. The sink is found at the end of a stream that rises at Pool Cave, and has an aboveground course of 100 metres. Siltation is a problem because of farming in the district..

Crayfish Cave

April 2, 2005

Team: Stewart, Roggy

Notes: RS Stewart

This site was found by Stewart and Roggy just before we located Pool Cave. We had been traversing cross-ways to the streambed that we knew to exist between the two, to use this to locate both targets, and we happened to first hit it at the downstream end, the sink of Crayfish Cave.

A currently muddy pit, (pulse event from Hurricane Ivan appears to have silted in a number of the sinks in the district), takes water from the end of a short stream that rises at the north entrance of Pool Cave. Although the KHE managed to get in here a few metres, and then dive a short sump to reach several more metres of passage with air-space, we were not able to penetrate this sink at all when we found it due to mud, (although it allowed water to flow through it in several holes). The land immediately around the sink is overgrown scrub pasture, and has poor cover. We found Pool Cave to be fairly silt-free, for reasons described in those notes, so it does not seem to be the main source of the mud. Most of what is entering Crayfish Cave comes from the land on either side of the streambed downstream of the Pool Cave rising.

The name of this cave is interesting, because "Crayfish" is Jamaican for river-shrimps. Apparently either the KHE found them here, or the people of the district had seen them in the pool at the entrance sink. We looked for shrimps during our time in the river caves of Rock Spring, but didn't see any. Part of the problem was that other than Mouth Maze, we were usually in stream-passages that had no dry floor - we were constantly wading/swimming and stirring up sediment, so there was no chance of seeing them. We had no choice in this, because there were so many caves to cover in the relatively short time that funding allowed - we could not spend hours standing around in any one cave. This was recognized in our planning for the proposal, and we had thusly limited our activities to gathering as much information as quickly as we could, with a foucs on indicators such as bats, guano, roaches, N. farri, siltation, etc, and positions that would enable researchers to easily find sites that might be of interest to them, as suggested by the indicators.

From Crayfish Cave, we followed the streambed upstream to find it rising from an entrance to a passage that resembled what we should expect for Pool Cave. After wading through this passage to the south, and finding it to match the KHE map, along with the entrance at the south end where we came out, we were sure that we had both Crayfish and Pool Caves. In the course of it, GPS georeferencing was done for the three entrances, and it will be a lot easier for others to find these sites in the future than it was for Dietrich and I, (much tramping around in the bush with a machete).

Far Enough Cave May 13, 2005 - 12:00-13:00 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 58.0; 77 34 23.2	UTM:
JAD69:	JAD2001:
Altitude: 450m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 20m horizontal; +/- 20m vertical
Type: Stream passage	Accessibility: Vertical gear
Depth: 8	Length: 380m
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 171; Map - pg 171
Entrance size: 2m W	Entrance aspect: 225 deg true
Vegetation in general locale: Bush, meadow	Vegetation at entrance: Flood meadow
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Undetermined	Palaeo resources: Undetermined
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Wet	Siltation: Heavy
Sink: Active	Rising: Undetermined
Stream passage with surface activity: Active	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: >90%.	Climate: Cool, humid.
Bats: None	Bat guano: N/A
Guano mining: N/A	Guano condition: N/A
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: None	Neoditomyia farri: Undetermined
Amblypygids: Undetermined	Periplaneta americana: Undetermined
Cave crickets: Undetermined	Sesarma: Undetermined
Other species: Stygobites are likely, but we could not penetrate the muddy sink to look.
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: None	Garbage: Much
Ownership: Forestry Reserve	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Medium. The sink is found at the end of a stream that rises at Good Hope Two Cave. Siltation is great, and garbage is being washed into the system.

Far Enough Cave

May 13, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack

Notes: RS Stewart

Far Enough Cave is the final downstream cave associated with the Mouth River known at this time. The cave was found by the KHE to trend east, and finally end in a sump after 380 metres. If there is a rising for Far Enough Cave beyond the sump, further into the Cockpit Country, neither the KHE, the JCC, or the JCO know about it. This does not mean it isn't there, but if it is, it remains to be found. Our own explorations in the district have only extended as far as those of the KHE, so essentially, no one has gone to take a look. But, by plotting the KHE cave map on the topos, using our GPS position for the entrance, we can make a guess where a rising might be found - 18 19 03.0 N, 77 34 13.5 W.

It took us two tries to find this site, first at the end of March, and then successfully on May 13, with the rainy-season underway. Apart from the flood-risk that might have been a factor, because of thick mud at the fissures that drop into the start of the passage, we were locked out and were able to do nothing but get a good position, and learn the lay of the land. This was at least of value, because as a result of our search we can supply GPS points for the best route to the glade, and coordinates that will allow the entrance to be quickly found.

On May 13 the entrance to Far Enough was heavily silted, exactly the same as the other sinks upstream in the system, (Good Hope Cave One, Good Hope Cave Two, several upstream entrances to Printed Circuit). The cockpit in which it is located showed obvious signs of having experienced great flooding, presumably during Hurricane Ivan. For all three of these entrances, even though water was carving holes through the mud to drain into them, for a human to get in would have required much shovelling of unstable mud.

We are not entirely sure which of several sinks in an area about 50 metres across was the entrance, because all were muddy. The position listed is for the most likely sink, but it could in reality be one of the others. The land is open around the GPS position, so it will not take long to find and have a look at all of them.

We saw heavy siltation throughout the entire Mouth Maze to Far Enough system, and it is obvious where it comes from. The land in much of the catchment immediately above is heavily cultivated alluvial soil, with no ground-cover between the banana, yams, coffee, or whatever. The farmers are diligent in their labours, and the soil on their farms is cultivated, loose, and ready to move when heavy rains arrive, such as with Ivan. Along with this topsoil there is an incredible amount of garbage that is washing into/through the system. At Mouth Maze, it was astounding - we'll go into it further in the notes for that cave. Beyond the downstream exits of Mouth Maze, at Good Hope Glade, the entire streambed to the sink of Good Hope Cave One was littered with bottles, and scandal bags, and you name it, all washed through from the Mouth River sink. This garbage actually extends right through the entire system, travelling through, Good Hope One Cave, along a stream and then through Good Hope Two Cave, and still found in the streambed that leads to the entrance to Far Enough Cave. It is no doubt continuing onwards into Far Enough, and what is happening to it there is anybody's guess, because this is the end of the known surface part of the system.

Access to the glade where this cave is located is via two routes, and has been addressed in the intoductory notes to this chapter.

We are listing this site with a medium vulnerability, because of the potential for clogging of the passage downstream due to the garbage that washes into the cave, and the siltation caused by local agriculture.

Farmyard Cave April 1, 2005 - 10:00-11:00 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 09.9; 77 34 07.8	UTM:
JAD69:	JAD2001:
Altitude: 505m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 5m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Choked stream passage	Accessibility: Crawl
Depth: 0	Length: 25m (2005); 213m (1965)
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 172; Map - pg 173
Entrance size: 1m W x <1m H	Entrance aspect: 75 deg true
Vegetation in general locale: Farm	Vegetation at entrance: Farm
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Stals	Palaeo resources: Undetermined
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Wet	Siltation: Heavy
Sink: Dry	Rising: Dry
Stream passage with surface activity: Dry	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: 0%.	Climate: Cool, humid.
Bats: None	Bat guano: N/A
Guano mining: N/A	Guano condition: N/A
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: None	Neoditomyia farri: None
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: None
Cave crickets: None	Sesarma: None
Other species: Stygobites are likely, but we could not penetrate the muddy sink to look.
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: None	Garbage: Some
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: High. Siltation is severely affecting this cave.

Farmyard Cave

April 1, 2005

Team: Stewart, Roggy

Notes: RS Stewart

We started out the day by splitting the team into two groups, with the plan being that we would again join forces at noon and move on to the Good Hope Glade caves. The morning would be spent in this way: Dietrich and I would resume our search for Farmyard Cave; Ivor, Elizabeth, and Minke Newman would tackle Harties Cave-2. Minke, an intern with The Nature Conservancy - Jamaica, had joined us first thing in the morning, and would be with us for only one day. As things would have it, her time with us would be spent in a couple of the more challenging caves that we were to visit in Rock Spring.

For D and I, much of the morning would be spent above-ground, searching for Farmyard Cave which was somewhere not far to the south of one of the entrances to Printed Circuit. We had looked for it already, on Mar 30, when hunting down entrances to Printed Circuit, but had had no luck. Now, we were armed with more knowledge, having accumulated enough GPS positions for enough entrances to allow us to sort things out, and be relatively sure of which entrance to Printed Circuit that Farmyard Cave would be found near. This would be wpt 183.

Not long past 9:00 AM, we were at entrance 183, and we then began a thorough hunt for our target. We spread out, and began to look carefully at every single possibility, these being hollows, and the upstream ends of seasonal streambeds. Working our way back and forth in the area, an hour passed with no success. It was mystifying; we knew that somewhere within a circle of 150m south of wpt 183, we should find several small entrances facing east that led into a stream-passage, but there was nothing to be found. Finally, when Dietrich and I in our ramblings were fairly close together again, in desperation I decided to look in a very small depression that lay right under the track that we'd been using to access entrance 183. The track ran through farmland, well-cultivated, and one would think that any entrances would be glaringly obvious. After moving down into the 1.5m deep hollow that lay at one point beside the track, and hacking at the weeds with a machete, things suddenly came clear. Before me in the weeds was a very small opening about 75cm high, rising from the dirt. Calling out to Dietrich that I might have it, I took off my pack, turned on my headlamp, and squeezed my head and shoulders in.

To the left, a low passage ended in mud about 5m away. To the right, the passage carried on past the entrance, also low and muddy, but continuing if one were to slither on one's belly. D had now caught up, so I slithered in to see what could be found. After about 20m, I saw signs of another small mud-choked entrance, and now realizing that things were beginning to match the KHE map, (although with one great difference), I worked my way back to where I'd come in, searching for what should be a continuing passage leading upstream, that is to the left of the entrance that I'd come in by. It had looked mud-choked, but it needed a closer examination. I spent 5 minutes looking for any chance of getting past the choke, and found nothing. I crawled back out of the "cave" to have a closer look at the printed scan of the cave map.

The map, seen below, shows the passage that leads upstream, or at least once did, because it does no longer. It also shows three entrances, of which only two remain. Lest any who read these notes suspect that I had found the wrong cave, note that the two entrances that we found match the map perfectly in location and aspect. It is immediately upstream of Thicket Entrance, Printed Circuit Cave. There was nothing else in the vicinity that could be found. We had the right cave, but unfortunately it is now so full of mud and silt that it is essentially filled-in. I am unsure which of the three entrances I entered by, but suspect it is what remains of the "South Entrance", (wpt xx). At any rate, we could only find two entrances, so the third apparently is filled-in.

I will quote the KHE notes from Jamaica Underground: "The southern continuation of Printed Circuit Cave where flux passage reaches the surface at Thicket Entrance, (wpt 183). A meandering passage continues to the Main Entrance beyond which are two ducks over rimstone pools and a crawl to a sump. Right leads to a sump. Left, a low wet passage for 25m to a T-junction, choked on the left and sumped on the right."

As can be seen, this passage was never terribly high to begin with, and because of the heavy cultivation of the land upstream, (the sumps noted by the KHE were merely low parts of the passage, and are being fed by upstream sinks with locations undetermined), and at the entrances, (which take water seasonally), it is now basically gone. We noted several other cave entrances during our days in Rock Spring, most notably Good Hope One Cave - Sink, that suffered from the same problem, no doubt exacerbated by Hurricane Ivan, but Farmyard Cave was the most extreme example. The district is heavily farmed, especially in the south catchment area, by very hard-working farmers who constantly keep the land tilled with no vegetative cover other than their coffee plants and yams, that is, with roughly 95% of the dirt loose and easily washed away in heavy rains. In fact, a farmer who was of much help earlier in the week showed us a sink that was currently blocked, (barely seen, but he knew where it was from when it had been open), that he noted needed to be cleared to allow water to drain from his field. What is one to do? The farmers are hard-working, and doing the best they can to maximize what profit is available, but in the course of this industrious cultivation they are doing great damage to the river-caves that are found here. I will merely describe the situation for now, but in the notes for Pool Cave, which was quite silt-free thanks to an acre or two of bush cover at the sink entrance that was holding silt, I will make what recommendations I can.

One can speculate that if vegetative cover were to return to the catchment area, eventually the mud in the cave might be washed out and the cave would return, but realistically this has a low probability of happening at any time in the foreseeable future. For now, there are no biological observations for us to note, because there was virtually no cave for us to access. Perhaps upstream, something remains, but it is not possible to get to it without many weeks with a shovel, tunnelling up the passage.

After getting a very good GPS position, we headed to Miss Buckle's to link with the rest of the crew.

We're listing this site with a high vulnerability, because of the problems with siltation, but there is little cave left to protect at this point.

Farmyard Cave

April 1, 2005

Notes: DK Roggy

Stefan and myself went around the area in which we suspected the cave might be. We asked some locals if they knew of a cave nearby, and were pointed in down a dirt road and off to the side of it. When we got to where we'd been directed we found ourselves at the double entrances of Printed circuit that face each other. This was the same place that we popped up out of the ground on March 30, to the bewilderment of a couple young children.

We assessed where we were and looked around. We came across a farmer and asked him where Farmyard cave might be. He directed us through a field and down a hill. When we got there we found ourselves at the entrance to Printed circuit that we'd been shown on March 29. This was the entrance that we went into before emerging at the double entrance described above. We wondered whether Farmyard cave even existed anymore. It had to be somewhere nearby. Stefan headed just south of the entrance we were at, along a path off to the side of yam cultivation. At one point the path turned off to the left and there was a bit of tall grass in the curve. Stefan stepped down into the grass, chopped a bit with his machete and found an entrance. It was almost covered with rocks and mud. Stefan went inside and stated that it was almost totally choked up with silt. The cultivation in the area had nearly filled in this cave.

I backtracked up the path and cut down some tall stiff grass to find another entrance. It was very much choked up and would have required moving rocks and digging to even stick my head inside. It seems evident that the last 40 years of cultivation since the KHE has affected this cave tremendously.

Good Hope Cave March 31, 2005 - 16:00-17:30 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 28.1; 77 33 50.8	UTM:
JAD69:	JAD2001:
Altitude: 520m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 25m horizontal; +/- 20m vertical
Type: Chamber cave	Accessibility: Walk-in
Depth: >3m	Length: >70m
Explorers: GSD - 1951	Survey: N/A
JU Ref: Text - pg 184; Map - none
Entrance size: 20m W x 12m H	Entrance aspect: 240 deg true
Vegetation in general locale: Bush, farm	Vegetation at entrance: Bush
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Stals, flowstone	Palaeo resources: Undetermined
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Dry	Siltation: N/A
Sink: N/A	Rising: N/A
Stream passage with surface activity: N/A	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: 60%.	Climate: Warm, semi-humid.
Bats: <500	Bat guano: Little
Guano mining: Historical - JAA 1938-42	Guano condition: Dry/compact
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some	Neoditomyia farri: None
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: None
Cave crickets: Some	Sesarma: None
Other species: None seen.
Visitation: Occasional	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: None	Garbage: Some - bottle torches
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Low. Small bat-roost. Guano already extracted.

Good Hope Cave

March 31, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack, Gary

Notes: RS Stewart

Good Hope Cave was our third cave of the day, (not counting a large unlisted shelter cave found in the morning), after Carambie, and Swanga. It was shown to us by Gary, a friendly man who lived close-by, and at the time we did not realize that it was one of our targets. In the Rock Spring district, there are two other caves named Good Hope, those being Good Hope One Cave, and Good Hope Two Cave. When compiling information prior to the expedition, I had neglected to add this one to the list, it becoming lost in the confusion of names. I should note that earlier in the expedition, near Maroon Town, we had investigated a cave called Hope River Glade, and I hope to not have to visit another cave with the word "Hope" in the name for at least several months - it's becoming rather difficult for me to keep them all straight.

Good Hope Cave is found not far from Carambie, and is at a similar elevation, and also morphologically similar. Like Carambie, it appears to be formed in the yellow-white limestone junction. It is primarily composed of one large breakdown chamber that has been divided into two sections by a remarkable wall of formations, (described in more detail below). It has one known entrance, large, found high on the side of a hill, that faces west. Gary was familiar with the cave, and told us that in the past he had found another chamber, (other than what is obvious when making a cursory exploration), that had beautiful formations, and that he had only been into this once. The reason, it transpired, that he was being so helpful today, (assisting us in finding Big Swanga, and Swanga Banga), was that he wanted us to assist him in re-finding this new, beautiful chamber, since during his only other visit he had had nothing but a bottle torch for light, and could not spend as much time in it as he would have liked. We, of course, were happy to do this, and upon making the short hike up the hill from the Good Hope Glade road, to reach the entrance, under the impression that we were visiting an unlisted, new cave, we were glad we had done so. We were obviously at something that had some potential, and was of some interest.

The cave is entered by passing through gaps on either side of an enormous boulder that sits just inside of the entrance. This giant chunk of rock is very impressive. It has broken off of the ceiling, to sit on the floor below, and in this sense is nothing out of the ordinary - but it is massive. Although not measured, it is over 15m across, and 12m high. On the top, it generally matches the shape of the ceiling from which it fell, with a space of about 2m left above, but on all sides, including the top, it is smooth, and rounded, as though it has been eroded by water over a long period. The cave is currently high and dry, so this seems to indicate that the giant boulder has been sitting in place for many thousands of years, since a time when the surrounding land was higher and there was indeed a flow through the cave that at least occasionally rose to the roof. Although it might seem odd that I was so fascinated by this giant rock, it should be understood that when one looked at it, one was very aware of the vast amount of time that nature had invested in this cave, and also the great changes that had happened to the exterior landform in the passage of those many millennia.

Interior of the great rock, a chamber about 25m wide, and 15 high, extends into the hill. Towards the back, about 60m inwards, there is a pile of breakdown boulders that extends from floor to roof, and wall to wall. Through this, gaps give access to further parts of the chamber, until at no great distance the end is found. Near the back of the main chamber, outside of the boulders on the south side, there is a lighthole. On the south side of the main chamber, several openings lead into what at first appears to be a second chamber, that runs beside the first one. Inside this next chamber, the formations are marvellous. Flowstone, and fluted columns, make up most of the walls, and there is little left of the native rock to be seen. Elizabeth in particular found this very beautiful, this being the most well-decorated cave she had seen to date. The two of us had gone into this section first, while the others searched for Gary's lost chamber, (which was to remain lost, because we never did find it), and we carefully scouted around to see if there were any other continuations to be found. Nothing was seen, other than gaps down into voids under the boulders, and after about 20 minutes of this we returned to join the others.

Once back in the main chamber, and looking around, I now realized that the whole cave was in fact one very wide room, with the dividing wall being composed of nothing but formations, floor to ceiling, essentially a long series of pillars, grown together, with just a few gaps left in it. Again, the morphology of this cave is fascinating. The width of the cave is much more than what you would usually find, because the horizontal extent is such that it should have collapsed by now. Apparently, the crack that extends above the formation-wall, that allowed the speleothems to form, created a load-bearing wall that has enabled the cave to survive all these years. This beautiful underground realm is much more than a simple hole in the ground - it's like a living creature, structurally improving itself as the years have gone by.

Biologically, the cave serves as an occasional roost for fruit-bats, (much of the main chamber being twilight zone), and there are no substantial guano deposits. Trog inverts weren't seen, (we might have missed seeing some that were indeed present), just terrestrial opportunistic critters and a few Cave Crickets, but because of the lack of invasive roaches and relative low-levels of nutrients, there may be potential for interesting troglobites if one were to spend enough time looking for them. There are no stygobites, because there is no water to speak of, other than what drips through cracks in the ceiling.

Dr Fincham, in Jamaica Underground, notes that this site was mined for guano by the Jamaican Agricultural Association in 1938-42. It is interesting to note that in 2005 there are no accumulations of guano that have built back up over the last 60 years. As noted, the bat-roost is small, and appears to mostly consist of Artibeus fruit-bats due to the relative lack of dark-zone. Artibeus do not use particular caves as consistently as some of the other species, and are therefore not in residence all the time. It was, no doubt, many centuries of guano that were removed by the JAA, and it will take many centuries for it to come back.

Also in JU, the length is given as 15 metres, but it is much more than this, and although we didn't survey the cave, we have stated it at over 70 which is our best guess.

We devoted another 30 minutes to searching for Gary's lost chamber, with no success, as he grew increasingly frustrated. He has a recollection of having found a squeeze down through rocks to find a particularly well-decorated room, but despite our looking through every little gap that we could, we did not find what he sought. Perhaps it is truly there, and we just didn't get lucky. Perhaps he was in the chamber that Elizabeth and I had explored, and had managed to find a different way in, under rocks from the main chamber, and thought he was somewhere else. We will leave this mystery to others to solve.

A GPS position was obtained, (wpt 197), with some difficulty, due to the cliff in which the entrance is found; I am listing the position with reduced accuracy to reflect this. The coordinates given will certainly allow the cave to be found, but they could be much improved. Nevertheless, plotting the GPS position on the topos afterwards seemed to show the entrance right where it should be compared to the local topography.

We are listing this cave with a low vulnerability, because much of the damage that could be done, (i.e. removing the guano), has already occurred.

Good Hope Cave

March 31, 2005

Notes: DK Roggy

This was a cave that our local friend Gary wanted to show us. What we saw in this cave was a large breakdown chamber, the entrance of which was obstructed by a boulder about 60 feet wide and 30 feet tall. This boulder had fallen from the roof ages ago and been shaped around the bottom by flowing water. After going past the boulder we came into a large chamber. On the right side of the chamber was a hole through which some of the others passed, and found some interesting stuff.

At the far end of the chamber was a series of break-down boulders that we crawled around in search of the passage and chambers that Gary had described. Gary may have confused this cave with some other, because he described a passage where one enters a chamber with 4 passages, go into one and come into a chamber with another 4 passages off of it, etc.

Good Hope One Cave April 1-2, 2005
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 40.8; 77 34 28.2 (Sink)
JAD69: 189154 E, 184264 N	JAD2001: 689264 E, 684553 N
Altitude: 495m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 15m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Stream passage	Accessibility: Scramble
Depth: 3m	Length: 155m
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 184; Map - pg 185
Entrance size: 1m W x 2m H	Entrance aspect: ~210 deg true
Vegetation in general locale: Bush, meadow	Vegetation at entrance: Flood meadow
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Stals, flowstone	Palaeo resources: None
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Wet	Siltation: Heavy
Sink: Active	Rising: Active
Stream passage with surface activity: Minot flow	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: >95%.	Climate: Cool, humid.
Bats: None	Bat guano: N/A
Guano mining: N/A	Guano condition: N/A
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some (from rising ent)	Neoditomyia farri: Some (from rising ent)
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: None
Cave crickets: None	Sesarma: Some
Other species: None seen.
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: None	Garbage: Much
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: High. Siltation and garbage is severe in this cave.

Good Hope One Cave

April 1-2, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack, Newman

Notes: RS Stewart

Sink: WGS84 - 18 18' 40.8" N; 77 34' 28.2" W; Alt: 495; Accuracy: +/- 15m; Aspect: ~210 deg true

Rising: WGS84 - 18 18' 45.0" N; 77 34' 27.4" W; Alt: 495; Accuracy: +/- 15m; Aspect: 0 deg true

Good Hope One Cave is the first of several stream passage caves found downstream of Mouth Maze. There are two entrances: the Sink is located at the end of a seasonal riverbed that starts at the Good Hope Glade Sump Entrance of Mouth Maze; and the Rising is on the other side of a saddle, in a different cockpit. Access notes for both entrances will be found in the introductory notes for this chapter.

We located the sink to the cave first, on April 1, with the help of a local man named Calvin who showed us a track from the east side of the Mouth River sink, over a saddle to Good Hope Glade. The following day, April 2, we would return to the glade and find the downstream rising of Good Hope One Cave.

April 1, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack, Newman

The hike over the saddle from the Mouth River was not bad - a little steep, but not long. Just before the glade, we hit a main trail and learned from Calvin that this started at the end of the Good Hope Road. We were already familiar with it, having seen it the day before with Gary, who had told us it went to Good Hope glade. We now had both ends sorted out.

As soon as we were down into Good Hope Glade, we intersected a deep seasonal streambed that meandered from our left, (southwest), north through the cockpit bottom. Following this, we soon reached a series of several muddy pits that were acting as sinks. The last of these seemed to be the one that would contain the entrance to the stream passage, but it was much too mud-choked to enter. It was now late in the afternoon, (we had already done Harties Cave-2, and Farmyard earlier in the day). We didn't want to push any further into the bush in search of the rising, in case we got caught out after dark on the hike out, so we reversed back along the streambed to see what we could find at the rising end of it. We weren't exactly sure which cave we had yet, and checking the upstream source would help to narrow things down..

At the top-end of the riverbed, we found an entrance to a passage that held deep water, and a small flow trickling out. We decided to follow it in. At points, we were up to our necks, half-wading, half-swimming, with the ceiling of the passage only 20 cm above us. Minke Newman, an intern for TNC-J, was with us for the day. Prior to this outing, she had never been in a non-tourist cave before. She had already dealt with Harties Cave-2 fine, (not exactly an easy cave), and would show herself to be brave indeed for this next little jaunt. She didn't whine, complain, just stoically followed along, as we moved through sections where the ceiling was so low you had to turn your head sideways to keep your chin out of the water. After about 100 metres of this, we hit a sump and could go no further, so we turned and made our way back out.

Once we'd had a chance to plot GPS positions afterwards, we could compare things to points that we'd already gotten, especially the main entrance to Mouth Maze, and could determine that the muddy sinks were Good Hope Cave One, and the long sumped passage at the top of the riverbed was one of two entrances to Mouth Maze at Good Hope Glade. The one we were in is the one that is shown with a sump in the KHE map for Mouth Maze.

The Mouth Maze passage held S. verleyi, and N. farri. This will be included in the notes for Mouth Maze, along with the position.

We now began the hike out, and although I was in favour of going back over the saddle to the end of the Mouth River, the others preferred to hike out along the trail to the Good Hope road. This was fine, as we were able to become familiar with the track, but it did mean a fair hike on the road to get back around to Miss Buckle's.

April 2, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack

We hiked to Good Hope Glade via the track from the Good Hope Road, after parking near the end of it. After reaching the sink of Good Hope One Cave, we crossed through the saddle beyond the sink, to hit the cockpit where we expected the passage to be rising. Once through, we soon found it low on the east side, as soon as the saddle is left behind. An entrance a few metres high, and less wide, is found past boulders and leads to a stream passage. We followed this but could not pass a sump shown on the KHE map as a deep pool. This was only about 30 metres in. Apparently, either it was a dryer time of year when they were in there, or they ducked through.

S. verleyi and N. farri were present in the passage. Eleuths were using the outer part of the cave. A GPS position was taken, and then we carried on across the cockpit to find GH Two Cave.

Good Hope Two Cave April 2 & May 13, 2005
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 49.8; 77 34 26.7 (Sink)
JAD69: 189198 E, 184541 N	JAD2001: 689309 E, 684830 N
Altitude: 490m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Stream passage	Accessibility: Crawl
Depth: 0	Length: 200m
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 184; Map - pg 185
Entrance size: 5m W x <2m H	Entrance aspect: 200 deg true (Sink)
Vegetation in general locale: Bush, meadow	Vegetation at entrance: Flood meadow
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Undetermined	Palaeo resources: None
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Wet	Siltation: Moderate
Sink: Active	Rising: Active
Stream passage with surface activity: Active	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: >95%.	Climate: Cool, humid.
Bats: None	Bat guano: N/A
Guano mining: N/A	Guano condition: N/A
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some (from rising ent)	Neoditomyia farri: Some (from rising ent)
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: None
Cave crickets: None	Sesarma: Some
Other species: None seen.
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: None	Garbage: Much
Ownership: Forestry Reserve	Protection: None
Vulnerability: High. Siltation and garbage is severe in this cave.

Good Hope Two Cave

April 2 & May 13, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack,

Notes: RS Stewart

Sink: WGS84 - 18 18' 49.8" N; 77 34' 26.7" W; Alt: 490; Accuracy: +/- 15m; Aspect: 200 deg true

Rising: WGS84 - 18 18' 53.5" N; 77 34' 25.3" W; Alt: 490; Accuracy: +/- 15m; Aspect: 90 deg true

Good Hope Two Cave is the second of several stream passage caves found downstream of Mouth Maze. There are two entrances: the Sink is located at the end of a seasonal riverbed that starts at the rising of Good Hope One Cave; and the Rising is to the northwest in a different cockpit. Access notes for both entrances will be found in the introductory notes for this chapter.

The Sink was found on the afternoon of April 2, and the Rising on May 13.

April 2, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack

After we had found the Rising entrance to Good Hope One Cave, we had generally followed the riverbed that starts there, but with us not actually down in it, until it disappeared below a saddle on the northwest side of the glade. At this point, another streambed joins from the east, after a series of muddy sinks, and low bedding-plane passages in the side of the hill. The drainage from the cockpit is through a wide section along the bottom of the hill, and the actual entrance to GH-2 Cave was not immediately apparent. In fact, it was not until our second visit, on May 13, that we were sure of the position for the true entrance.

After scrambling around in various low wet undercuts in the hill for a while, and not having much luck, we decided to look further to the northwest in the cockpit bottom to see what could be found. At 18 18 53.4 N, 77 34 36.4 W, 300 metres from the GH-2 Cave sinks, we found what we determined afterwards is an unlisted sink at the end of a stream. We didn't spend much time trying to find a way in, and didn't have any success, but this site should be looked at again.

The time was now late afternoon, and we had already been in several caves earlier in the day, so we pulled the plug and hiked out.

May 13, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Slack

During the second PiP expedition, we returned to Good Hope Glade to finish things off. Parking again at the end of the Good Hope Road, we made good time on the hike to the Rising of GH-1 Cave, and this time walked right down the bottom of the riverbed that starts here, (mostly dry at this time). The garbage was really quite something - bags, bottles, old shoes, you name it, was littered along the entire route. No one lives or farms in this glade, (it floods), so obviously it was all coming from the sink of the Mouth River, after having travelled through Mouth Maze, and GH-1 Cave.

This attempt, we found the actual entrance to GH-2 Cave, but the time of year and the flood-risk suggested that we not go in. A couple of things can be noted: There is not much silt at the entrance to the cave, because the flow in is through a very wide section of bedding-plane at the bottom of the hill, and it has not been concentrated like at the GH-1 Cave sink. The garbage fed to this point is not being trapped to any extent at the entrance to the passage and much is washing in. Despite there having been much rain in the weeks before, with the Mouth River quite active, the riverbed through the glade was still mostly dry - apparently, the phreatic zone had not yet risen enough to cause a surface flow.

After getting a GPS position, we worked our way through the saddle above the sink to find the Rising.

The saddle that needs to be crossed is a little dicey to get through. A vertical cliff of about 15 metres is directly above the sink, and on either side the hill is only slightly less steep. We went to the right, (east), and had to fight our way around trees, including Cowitch, perched on the steep slope. The rocks are loose. I was the first through this, and got Ivor to throw me the etrier so that I could tie it to a tree at a safe point for the others to use - I was somewhat concerned about the others taking a very nasty fall. The downward side was easier.

Once through the saddle, we went down into the cockpit, and swung left, (north), to look for the riverbed that we expected to find starting at the Rising of GH-2 Cave. We found it where the KHE area plan indicated it should be, about 300 metres from the saddle.

At the top of the riverbed was a fissure type entrance, (strongly jointed), with a pitch of some metres dropping into the rock. This matched what we would expect for the rising of GH-2 Cave, going by the KHE account. We didn't have a rope, not thinking that we would need one, but we had a very long etrier, (10 metres). We tied this to a tree, fed it into the hole, and Ivor headed in. The etrier didn't get him quite to the bottom, so he wasn't able to explore up the passage.

Although we did not get into the passage, we would expect that S. verleyi would be present, since they are in all of the other stream passage caves in Rock Spring. N. farri would also be possible. A GPS position was taken at the entrance, and then we followed the riverbed downstream as best we could, (we couldn't walk in it most of the time, because of trees washed/fallen in, and mud), until we reached the sink to Far Enough Cave.

Greater Swanga Shelter March 31, 2005 - 13:00-13:30 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 44.6; 77 34 11.0
JAD69: 189659 E, 184380 N	JAD2001: 689770 E, 684669 N
Altitude: 500m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Shelter cave	Accessibility: Walk-in
Depth: 15m	Length: >50m
Explorers: JCO - 2005	Survey: N/A
JU Ref: N/A
Entrance size: 50m W x 20m H	Entrance aspect: 45 deg true
Vegetation in general locale: Bush, farm	Vegetation at entrance: Bush
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Stals, flowstone	Palaeo resources: None
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Wet	Siltation: Moderate
Sink: N/A	Rising: Dry
Stream passage with surface activity: N/A	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: 0%.	Climate: Outside ambient.
Bats: 0	Bat guano: None
Guano mining: N/A	Guano condition: N/A
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some	Neoditomyia farri: None
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: None
Cave crickets: None	Sesarma: Undetermined
Other species: None.
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: None	Garbage: None
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Low. Large shelter that is a rising.

Greater Swanga Shelter

March 31, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack, Gary

Notes: RS Stewart

The morning had started with Carambie Cave, and after finishing it we moved up the Good Hope Glade road to start our search for Swanga, Pool, Crayfish, and Iron Maiden caves. They were all listed as being accessible from this side of the bush, arrayed across towards Printed Circuit Cave. We had linked with a friendly local man, Gary, soon after parking at the bottom of the Good Hope Glade road, (near wpt 203), who not only knew of Swanga Cave, but would take us there, (no charge - it turned out he wanted our assistance in exploring another cave he knew of and was curious about). We hiked up the road, (a very minor rural road, more of a lane), until at the end it forked off into two trails. The left branch, we were told, headed to the Good Hope Glade, where we would search for several other caves later in the week. To the right, we were told, was Swanga. This seemed odd to me, because we were now well past the listed position for Swanga, and heading even further away. Nevertheless, we followed him down the trail to see what could be found. Whatever it was, it would be unlisted.

After passing through a saddle, we descended into a large bottomland that was fairly bushed-up on the slopes. Once down, we swung to the left, and a short distance ahead we came to an enormous, shallow shelter-cave hard against the side of the valley, (wpt 195). This, we were informed, was Swanga. Now, we knew that the listed Swanga is a small stream-passage cave, with a small entrance, and this of course in no way matched what we sought. We hiked closer into it and had a look at things.

At the bottom of this giant shelter, there was an obvious seasonal stream-rising, currently impenetrable due to mud/silt. It was not active, but it was dry-season so this was no surprise. The effects of the last rising were certainly visible, though, in the form of dried mud covering a large part of the bottomland, and extending a good distance up the trunks of trees found in the valley immediately below the cave. This appeared to be, once again, a result of Hurricane Ivan, some months before, as seen at Mouth Maze. Hurricane or not, it is apparent that this rising is terrifically active at times, unlisted, and has its source undetermined.

I questioned our friend carefully about the name of this cave, and also asked if he knew of anything in the area where the "real" Swanga was supposed to be that had a small stream-passage type entrance. Indeed he knew of such a cave, locally known as "Banga". After getting a GPS position, (wpt 195), for this new "cave", we hiked back out to the end of the lane where the fork is found, and then back towards where we'd parked, and much closer to where the "real" Swanga was listed to be.

We're listing this new site with a low vulnerability, because it is just a large shelter with no bat-roost, etc. There is a possibility of Sesarma spp in the passages/bedding-planes that feed the rising.

Harties Cave-1 March 30, 2005 - 12:30-14:00 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 14.7; 77 34 21.8 (Main)
JAD69: 189339 E, 183461 N	JAD2001: 689450 E; 683750 N
Altitude: 510m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Dry passage	Accessibility: Walk-in
Depth: 0	Length: >250m
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 196; Map - pg 197
Entrance size: 3m W x 5m H (Main)	Entrance aspect: 50 deg true (Main)
Vegetation in general locale: Bush, farm	Vegetation at entrance: Farm
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Stals, flowstone, bacon	Palaeo resources: None seen
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Dry	Siltation: N/A
Sink: N/A	Rising: N/A
Stream passage with surface activity: N/A	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: 75%.	Climate: Warm; semi-humid.
Bats: <500	Bat guano: Little
Guano mining: Historical, Current	Guano condition: Dry/compact
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some	Neoditomyia farri: None seen
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: Some
Cave crickets: None seen	Sesarma: Some
Other species: None seen
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: Much	Garbage: Some
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: High. This site has a bat-roost that has seen frequent disturbance in the past.

Harties Cave-1

March 30, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack

Notes: RS Stewart

Main Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 14.7" N, 77 34' 21.8" W; Alt: 510; Accuracy: +/- 10m; Aspect: 50 deg true
NW Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 16.0" N, 77 34' 24.6" W; Alt: 510; Accuracy: +/- 20m; Aspect: 320 deg true

The two Harties caves are in the Rock Spring district, in hills on the west side of the Mouth River. In the distant past, they were part of the active river itself, but this has now moved lower and to the east. Our visit to these caves was made as part of the Parks in Peril Project, under contract to The Nature Conservancy.

In the morning, our team of four had separated into two groups and carried out further exploration of Printed Circuit Cave, with much success. In the early afternoon, we had reassembled in preparation for the Harties caves, and then Mouth Maze, at the end of the Mouth River. We were fortunate in having a relative of Miss Buckle, the lady from whom we were renting rooms, assist us in locating the entrances to the Harties caves. Although they were at no great distance from Printed Circuit, finding them ourselves would have consumed time that was better spent inside, rather than outside, the caves.

The main entrances to both caves can be reached either by a track to the north, or through farmland to the south. This first visit was done from the north, by taking the side-trail that branches off from the main Mouth River trail, and ascends the hill to the west before curving back to the south. In a collapse-feature, now forming a saddle in the hill, entrances to both caves can be found, with Harties 1 to the SW, and Harties 2 on the NE. We began the visit by entering Cave-1.

There are two branches to Cave-1, one of which, the northern, leads to another entrance at the NW end. The main entrance, at the collapse, is medium sized, some 5m high and 4 wide, and it is only about 10m to where the two sections of the cave diverge. Once in, Dietrich and I took the northern route, and Ivor and Elizabeth the southern. We passed through fairly quickly to find the far entrance, (larger than the main entrance, facing west on the side of a hill), and then after getting a GPS position, (with some difficulty due to the entrance topology), we worked our way more slowly back the way we had come to search for inverts. Several Sesarma spp. were observed, (crabs), and a leg was collected from one for genetic analysis in a small pool near the far entrance. Several pools were located in this northern section of the cave, with the collection pool being one of the smaller and thereby offering easier temporary capture of a crab. As with most of the other caves we observed in the district, Periplaneta americana were present, although not in great numbers. This was possibly associated with the relatively small bat-roost that was in the cave, and a correspondingly low quantity of the guano which these roaches seem to enjoy as one of their main food sources. The roost itself was estimated to have numbers under 500, and to be largely made up of fruit-bats. About 75% of this cave is twilight zone, and it has been visited often through the years because of the ease of access. Guano mining has occurred periodically, although the deposits are quite small at the current time and it would be suspected that it would primarily be mud with some fertilizer leached into it that has been collected. It is difficult to know whether this roost was larger in the past, and has been lessened by human visitation, but during the time of our observation it was of no great extent and available roosting space was not being fully used. Trog inverts that might have been expected were not seen, (cave crickets, spiders, amblypygids), and this could perhaps be due to limited food resources and P. americana out-competing other scavengers.

The presence of Sesarma verleyi is interesting, because it indicates that there are fissures that connect the upper chambers to a lower section closer to the phreatic zone.

D and I returned to the collapse-feature at the main entrance, where I obtained a GPS position, and then we waited for Ivor and Elizabeth to join us. After a while, they emerged from their branch of the cave and reported having found a small, but long passage that they had followed for a great distance without reaching the end, that did not seem to be indicated on the KHE map from 1965. This discovery warrants a return visit at a future date.

We now entered Cave-2, and journeyed in for about 30m until a deep gully was reached that required vertical gear to descend. The gully seemed to show that formation of the cave had taken place in two separate stages, with the larger higher chambers being first, and then an active stream cutting a gully through the floor of this at a later point. The process does not seem to have been steady, but instead punctuated, there being no gradual transformation from the older, higher chamber, to the gully which was carved into the floor. It appears that many thousands of years separated these two stages of development, with an extended dry period in between, (this perhaps occurring during the last glacial age).

Because we did not have vertical gear with us this day, we decided to make a return visit later in the week to Cave-2 and move on to Mouth Maze cave today.

The garbage noted consisted of bottle-torches, fertilizer bags, etc.

We are listing this site with a high vulnerability due to the bat-roost and the frequent disturbance by visitors. This cave was probably more interesting biologically in the past and should be allowed to recover. We'd suggest that the guano mining stop.

Harties Cave-1

March 30, 2005

Notes: DK Roggy

Stefan and myself walked through Harties 1 cave from one end to the other, following the main part of the cave around to the right and to the other entrance. We found that the two entrances were not far apart. I explored a bit within the middle of the passage, scrambling up an incline and finding myself in a perhaps 1m diameter crawlway. I went a little way and came across a green beer bottle. It seemed that a local had come this far before and left this item to mark how far he'd come. Perhaps if I'd gone further on, I might have run into the same passage that Ivor and Elizabeth had found. Further exploration is needed.

Harties Cave-2 April 1, 2005 - 12:30-14:00 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 14.7; 77 34 21.8
JAD69: 189339 E, 183461 N	JAD2001: 689450 E, 683750 N
Altitude: 510m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Complex cave	Accessibility: Scramble/vertical gear
Depth: 15m	Length: 1058m
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 196; Map - pg 197
Entrance size: 3m W x 4m H (Main)	Entrance aspect: 230 deg true (Main)
Vegetation in general locale: Bush, farm	Vegetation at entrance: Farm
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Stals, flowstone	Palaeo resources: None seen
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Dry	Siltation: N/A
Sink: N/A	Rising: N/A
Stream passage with surface activity: N/A	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: >95%.	Climate: Warm; semi-humid.
Bats: >500	Bat guano: Much
Guano mining: Historical; on-going	Guano condition: Fresh/fluff
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some	Neoditomyia farri: None seen
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: Some
Cave crickets: None seen	Sesarma: Some
Other species: None seen
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: Some	Garbage: Some
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Medium. This site has a large bat-roost. Access is more difficult than Harties Cave-1.

Harties Cave-2

April 1, 2005

Team: Conolley, Slack, Newman

Notes: RS Stewart

The report I received from the three of the crew who visited the cave while Dietrich and I were finding Farmyard Cave, indicates the following:

A large bat-roost is found well into the cave, in the dark zone. This in the further, lower sections, with guano extraction not reaching this point, but being limited to the outer, upper section. American roaches are present, but for other inverts the observations were not thorough, and are uncertain.

The three of them seem to have found the cave quite interesting in a "caving" way, and were impressed. There is a possibility that the cave is not thoroughly explored yet.

I will quote from my notes for Harties 1, on Mar 30 when I briefly visited Cave 2:

We now entered Cave-2, and journeyed in for about 30m until a deep gully was reached that required vertical gear to descend. The gully seemed to show that formation of the cave had taken place in two separate stages, with the larger higher chambers being first, and then an active stream cutting a gully through the floor of this at a later point. The process does not seem to have been steady, but instead punctuated, there being no gradual transformation from the older, higher chamber, to the gully which was carved into the floor. It appears that many thousands of years separated these two stages of development, with an extended dry period in between, (this perhaps occurring during the last glacial age).

Iron Maiden Cave May 21, 2005 - 11:00-13:00 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 39.0; 77 33 58.8 (Sink)
JAD69: 190017 E, 184206 N	JAD2001: 690128 E, 684495 N
Altitude: 495m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 15m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Stream passage	Accessibility: Walk-in
Depth: 0	Length: 310m
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 208; Map - pg 209
Entrance size: 1m W x 2m H (Sink)	Entrance aspect: 280 deg true (Sink)
Vegetation in general locale: Bush, farm	Vegetation at entrance: Bush
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Straws, stals	Palaeo resources: None
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Wet	Siltation: Low
Sink: Active	Rising: Undetermined
Stream passage with surface activity: Minor flow	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: >95%.	Climate: Cool, humid.
Bats: None	Bat guano: N/A
Guano mining: N/A	Guano condition: N/A
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some	Neoditomyia farri: Some
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: None
Cave crickets: None	Sesarma: Undetermined
Other species: None seen
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: None	Garbage: None
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Medium. The land at the sink is currently well covered with weeds, scrub, and some bush, which are preventing silt entering the system. Land-use change could cause this passage to silt, as at Farmyard Cave.

Iron Maiden Cave

May 21, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley

Notes: RS Stewart

We had problems finding this cave initially, and had had no luck during our stay at Rock Spring in late March. Dietrich and I had looked for it a couple of times to the east of Swanga, on the same side of the Good Hope road, and as it turned out, it was on the other side. The entry in JU is somewhat deceiving, as it states, "East of Mouth River sink in the floor of a large glade". The large glade is apparently the rising entrance, because the sink is in a narrow valley between hills, and both entrances are a long way from the Mouth River. I finally was able to locate the sink entrance with the aid of the Rock Spring area plan, (found in the introductory notes to this chapter), using GPS waypoints that I knew were definite to calibrate the plan, and then plotting it on the topo map, and then moving the resultant positions into the GPS prior to the search. This worked well, and on May 21 Ivor and I found the entrance only 35 metres from where I'd calculated it to be.

An entrance about 1.5 metre wide, and 2.5 high, takes the water of a small stream. There was a minor flow when we there. Inside, it widens and runs through bedding-planes until after about 30 metres the ceiling lowers towards the water. To the left, (north), there is a section of small breakdown chamber. When we reached the point where the airspace was only about 30 cm above the water, we decided to not pursue it and stopped there. There was detritus stranded on the passage walls right to the roof, and it was rainy-season.

Neoditomyia farri, were present, but I saw no Sesarma. I would suspect that if we had been able to go further into the passage we would have found them, since S. verleyi are found in most of the other Rock Spring caves, along with S. windsor in Printed Circuit and Harties #1.

There was very little silt in the cave, inside of the sink, and it appears that the thick vegetative cover outside is responsible for this.

We have not found the rising for this cave yet, but by comparing the KHE map to our position on the topo map for the sink, we would suggest that it will be found in a cockpit near 18 18 46.3 N, 77 33 54.8 W.

We are listing this cave with a medium vulnerability because if the land-use at the sink were to change, this cave could go the way of Farmyard and be affected by siltation.

Mouth Maze March 30, 2005 - 15:00-18:30 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 29.1; 77 34 27.0 (River Sink)
JAD69: 189188 E, 183905 N	JAD2001: 689299 E, 684193 N
Altitude: 490m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 15m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Labyrinth	Accessibility: Scramble
Depth: 10	Length: 3188m
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 259; Map - pg 259, 261
Entrance size: <4m W x <3m H (Sink)	Entrance aspect: 90 deg true (Sink)
Vegetation in general locale: Bush, farm	Vegetation at entrance: Flood meadow
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Stals, straws, echinolith	Palaeo resources: None
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Wet	Siltation: Heavy
Sink: Dry	Rising: Active (Good Hope Sump Ent)
Stream passage with surface activity: Minor flow	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: >99%.	Climate: Cool, humid.
Bats: None	Bat guano: N/A
Guano mining: N/A	Guano condition: N/A
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some	Neoditomyia farri: Some
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: Some
Cave crickets: Some	Sesarma: Many
Other species: Two species of spiders - Nesticidae fam. Coleoptera - species undetermined. Diptera larvae - species undetermined. Termites.
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: None	Garbage: Much
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: High. The cave is taking vast amounts of garbage from flood-waters of the Mouth River, and siltation is great.

Mouth Maze

March 30, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack

Notes: RS Stewart

Main Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 29.1" N, 77 34' 27.0" W; Alt: 490; Accuracy: +/- 15m; Aspect: 90 deg true
Lighthole Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 31.6" N, 77 34' 31.8" W; 510; Accuracy: +/- 15m

Good Hope Sump Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 37.8" N, 77 34' 27.3" W; Accuracy: +/- 15m; Aspect: 30 deg true

Mouth Maze is located at the sink of the Mouth River, in Rock Spring, Trelawny. The JCO visit to it was made as a part of the Parks in Peril Project, under contract to The Nature Conservancy.

We were fortunate in there having been very dry conditions for the two months prior to our exploration of this cave, because during rainy times it is potentially quite dangerous. At the time of our visit, dried mud could be seen stuck to the trunks of trees in the valley just upstream of the main entrance, over 10m high. This was probably left over from Hurricane Ivan, but according to local reports, even in a normal rainy-season the valley floods up much higher than the entrance to the cave. This is primarily due to the valley of the Mouth River suddenly ending at the entrance to the cave, (a blind-valley, as it were), so that water backs-up to a considerable height before it manages to drain entirely through the Mouth River Sink, and the Maze.

The cave is a labyrinth, and it is large and impressive. The outer chambers, close inside the main entrance, are 10's of metres high and wide. This section takes much of the river flow in flood-times, and has been eroded greatly as a result. Further on, the cave branches into a number of different passages, and they are generally smaller. It requires diligent flagging to avoid getting lost. Any who read these notes and contemplate a visit to Mouth Maze are advised to not take it lightly. There are none in the district who are familiar with the cave, and if you have problems, no one will find you, (even the JCO would have a hard time locating lost cavers in this great network of passages).

Our team had already visited several caves this day, and this was to be the last. The hike out would be easy, on a good trail, and we had no great worries if we had to make the trek back to Rock Spring in the dark. At about 3:00 PM, after the Harties caves, we were at the downstream end of the Mouth River and looking for a way through a giant pile of debris that had been heaped-up in front of the entrance, apparently by the floods of Hurricane Ivan. Bamboo, tree-trunks, and assorted garbage, lay in a great mound, tens of metres across, and at least 10m high, in front of where the main entrance to the cave should be. Stepping carefully over and around this, we finally found a way in. I am unsure of what the entrance looks like when it is clear, but on this day all that was visible was an opening a couple of metres high and wide. This was soon passed, and we were in the cave.

I must admit that it didn't take long for me to become somewhat concerned about what lay before us, and I passed the word to the others that we would be very, very careful in this one. Part of my reason for feeling this way was that the initial chambers were large enough that we could not see side-passages well, but we knew that they were there in abundance. It seemed easy to lose track of flags in this, and miss turns on the way out. In addition, everything was coated in slimy mud, and footing was treacherous, especially over the massive slabs and boulders that served as the floor in much of this first part. Moving slowly, we carried on straight ahead to find the closest of the other known entrances. At the far end of what seemed to be the main part of the large entrance series, a scramble up a muddy slope led to a breakdown chamber with lightholes at the top. One of these was reached by me via a climb up boulders of about 13m, and I came out high on a hillside with, amazingly, dried mud in place on the trees that grew at the entrance. I could not tell whether the waters had sunk or risen here, but whichever it was, I was a good distance higher than the main entrance and the first large chambers found within. The amount of water that must have been involved in all of this was incredible.

After getting a GPS position at the lighthole entrance, I climbed carefully back down to rejoin the others, and then we retraced our route until we came to a large side-passage on the SW that had been passed on the way in. I believe this was the beginning of the so-called "Bloodbath Passage" shown on the KHE map. This was followed for about 50m, and then another side-passage was taken, to the NW. We moved through this section, (I believe we were in the "VW Passage"), and worked our way along, flagging often, until we finally entered what I believe to have been the "Sludge Thing", (this after a slither through the mud in a low passage, first pushed by Elizabeth). We now came into a long sinuous streamway that we followed for well over a hundred metres. Soon after we had entered this last passage, we had detected a slight flow of air, (this being a big part of why we had carried on), and there was no doubt that somewhere ahead was another entrance. Unfortunately, the great amount of silt deposited in the water, through which we splashed, was steadily supplying noxious gases as we churned things up making our way forward. I began to keep track of how I felt, so that I might be aware of the effects of high concentrations of CO2, or other gases. I will go into more detail on this further on, but it must be noted that this entire cave had experienced a massive flood during Hurricane Ivan, and it was heavily silted, and full of a great amount of organic debris, such as bamboo, logs, and branches - in short, there was a lot of actively rotting stuff in this cave, and conditions were substantially different than when the KHE team made their visit in 1965.

My thoughts in this part of the cave were that we were headed for an entrance, the airflow should improve as we got close to it, and because we had taken time to look for inverts on the way to where we were now, we should make speed and find the way out, and fresh air, somewhere ahead of us. I had a walkie-talkie with me, and the others who were now some distance behind me had the other. It seemed to me that if I were out front and pushing on at a somewhat faster pace, that the rest of the crew would also move at a faster pace, copying my example. This did not turn out to be the case, and after a short time I recieved a call, via a signal bouncing up the passage to reach my walkie-talkie, informing me that the others wanted to consult on things and desired my participation. There was some concern on their part as to whether we should carry on or turn back, since they too were not happy with the state of the air in the passage. I returned towards them, and we linked as they came up towards me. A quick discussion decided things, and we agreed to turn back. Time was getting late, we were a long way into a complex cave, and the atmosphere was rank. I went with the majority decision, which was to pull the plug, and we headed back out the way we'd come. We successfully retraced our route, and were again at the main entrance not long before sunset.

Observations follow:

If parts of this cave have been used by bats as a roost in the past, the flood event during Hurricane Ivan took care of that, and also washed away any evidence of it having happened. Considering the regular, "normal" seasonal floods that enter this cave, I doubt that it is ever used as anything but a temporary roost by fruit-bats.

There was a surprising degree of invert activity, apparently fuelled by the enormous amount of detritus that has recently been rafted in. At least several of the species were troglobites, (identification underway), and others are suspected to be terrestrial, rafted in and continuing to survive on the accompanying detritus. The trog inverts apparently survived the floods by hiding-out in small cracks at the top of the passages and chambers. Most remarkable of the rafted terrestrials was a termite nest, complete with live termites, that was about 60cm across, sitting on a rock, perfectly rounded by its watery travel into the cave. The logs and bamboo that were present were continuing to enable the critters to survive. Of the over 100 caves I have visited in Jamaica, this was the first one I've ever seen with a termite colony, other than in the twilight zone close to the entrance. The location of the termite nest was hundreds of metres from the nearest entrance, and when the last of the logs are rotted away, one can safely assume that the termites will be history.

Many Sesarma spp. were present, but no shrimp were seen. This does not mean that they weren't present - we might have just not seen them - but if they are in Mouth Maze the numbers are not great.

I must note again the great amount of debris that is currently in the cave. This not only includes a great quantity of organic material, but also a vast collection of garbage that was washed in at the same time. It is interesting that there was little in the final passage, (Sludge Thing?), indicating that its source is relatively garbage-free. Much of the rest of the cave that we saw had been flooded by the waters of the Mouth River, and had collected a kilometres worth of external trash prior to feeding it into the entrance. The cave truly needs a good clean-up at some point before all the assorted buckets, bottles, and bags start to lodge and collect silt in smaller downstream passages. This process could very possibly interfere with the historical levels of drainage through Mouth Maze, (that allows the water to leave the entrance valley and come out at the downstream risings), and back things up even more in the future.

This day had been one of the most productive so far this expedition, and although somewhat physically tired, I felt quite pleased and didn't want the day to end yet. After having a bite to eat at Miss Buckle's, I made my way down the road to a friendly little bar that I knew of, and spent a couple of hours in the good company of some of the local residents, while being served cold Red Stripe by a quite attractive, very friendly woman. At 10:00 PM, with my sense of responsibility kicking-in, I wended my way back to Miss Buckle's, brushed my teeth, took out my contact lenses, and then had a very satisfying, well-deserved sleep.

We're listing this cave with a high vulnerability, due to the great amount of garbage being washed in, and the heavy siltation. At present, post-Hurricane Ivan, it's a total mess in there. The only thing comparable I've seen is Rota Cave in St James, which also takes flood-waters full of trash.

Mouth Maze

March 30, 2005

Notes: DK Roggy

We found our way to the entrance of Mouth Maze. It was a large jumble of bamboo and other items that had floated on the river and remained on the surface when the river sank down into the cave. I scrambled around on the mass of wood and pulled some things out of the way, until I found the entrance. Placing a long, fairly fresh length of bamboo down into the entrance, I used it to assist me in scrambling down the boulders at the entrance.

We came into a very large chamber strewn with boulders and debris that provided us with 3 options for which way to go. We proceeded forward, pretty much due west as I remember it. After about 100m we came to a collapse that had at least 2 light holes in it. Stefan scrambled up and out and obtained a GPS position.

After that we backtracked a bit and took a passage to the south. We went for some while on this path, encountering logs every now and then. Eventually we came to a rough, eroded channel that was perhaps 10-15 feet tall and 2-3 feet wide. It looked really difficult, and much different from what we'd been walking through. I noticed no silt accumulated in it and the walls glistened with moisture. We decided not to take this passage, turned left, slid through a muddy crawl, then emerged in another stream passage that was fairly open and promising.

Stefan started getting worried about whether he was having symptoms of breathing too much CO2, or some other gases. When he asked us how we felt I wasn't sure if I was dehydrated or what, but felt a mild headache. We'd been going for some time inside this labyrinthine cave, and although we'd been flagging all along, I was feeling like we'd gone for such a long time that I'd rather just turn back. When I informed the group that the time was 16:45, that decided it. We turned back, leaving behind one flag at our farthest point. I labeled it "JCO, 30 Mar, 2005". Perhaps someday in the future we will come across it again.

Mouth River Sink
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 29.9; 77 34 26.2	UTM:
JAD69:	JAD2001:
Altitude: 490m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 15m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Shaft sink	Accessibility: Undetermined
Depth: 10m	Length: 0m
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 260; Map - none
Comments: Impenetrable sump. During our visit on March 30, 2005, the entrance was buried under bamboo and other debris from Hurricane Ivan, and we were not able to find it. The WGS84 position given above is extrapolated from our position for Mouth Maze, which is right next to the Sink, to the southwest.

Pool Cave April 2, 2005 - 10:00-12:00 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 28.5; 77 34 11.5 (Rising)
JAD69: 189643 E, 183885 N	JAD2001: 689754 E, 684174 N
Altitude: 490m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Stream passage	Accessibility: Walk-in
Depth: 0	Length: 175m
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 293; Map - pg 136
Entrance size: 2m W x 2m H	Entrance aspect: 45 deg true
Vegetation in general locale: Farm, bush, scrub	Vegetation at entrance: Scrub
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Undetermined
Speleothems: Stals, rimstone	Palaeo resources: None
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Wet	Siltation: Low
Sink: Dry	Rising: Active
Stream passage with surface activity: Minor flow	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: >90%.	Climate: Cool, humid.
Bats: None	Bat guano: N/A
Guano mining: N/A	Guano condition: N/A
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some	Neoditomyia farri: Some
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: None
Cave crickets: None	Sesarma: Some
Other species: None.
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: None	Garbage: None
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Medium. The sink is currently one of the few in Rock Spring that has good vegetative cover upstream.

Pool Cave

April 2, 2005

Team: Stewart, Roggy

Notes: RS Stewart

Rising Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 28.5" N, 77 34 11.5" W; Alt: 490; Accuracy: +/- 10m; Aspect: 45 deg true
Sink Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 24.7" N, 77 34' 11.5" W; Alt: 490; Accuracy: +/- 10m; Aspect: 180 deg true

This cave was visited immediately after Crayfish Cave. We entered through the rising entrance, and exited from the sink entrance. We noticed soon after we were in the passage that siltation was low. When we came out at the far end, we found that the seasonal streambed that feeds into the cave had a very dense cover of bush and shrubs, with the more open areas covered with tall weeds. This was the only sink in the district that we found in this state, and it was the least muddy cave. The floor of the passage was clean rock, and rimstone pools held clear water. This cave can be contrasted well to Farmyard Cave which is not far away. Farmyard takes most of its flow from cultivated land and is almost entirely choked with silt.

The passage held no rafted-in garbage. Invasive roaches were not present.

Sesarma verleyi were present, as were N. farri, but we saw no other trogs.

We are listing this site with a medium vulnerability. There is no immediate threat, but if land-use changes upstream, it will be greatly changed by siltation.

Printed Circuit Cave March 29-30, 2005
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 16.3; 77 34 14.2 (Main)
JAD69: 189562 E, 183510 N	JAD2001: 689673 E, 683799 N
Altitude: 495m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 5m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Labyrinth	Accessibility: Walk-in
Depth: 10	Length: 3220m
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 297; Map - pg 298
Entrance size: 2m W x 2.5m H (Main)	Entrance aspect: 240 deg true (Main)
Vegetation in general locale: Farm, bush, scrub	Vegetation at entrance: Scrub
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Stals, straws	Palaeo resources: None
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Wet	Siltation: Heavy
Sink: Dry	Rising: Dry
Stream passage with surface activity: Flowing	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: >99%.	Climate: Cool, humid.
Bats: >500	Bat guano: Some
Guano mining: None	Guano condition: Wet/compact
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some	Neoditomyia farri: Some
Amblypygids: None seen	Periplaneta americana: Some
Cave crickets: Many	Sesarma: Many
Other species: One species of spider seen - Nesticidae fam. Two species of Sesarma, S. verleyi and S. windsor.
Visitation: Much	Speleothem damage: Some
Graffiti: Much	Garbage: Much
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Medium. The cave has garbage washing in from the sinks, as well as being carried in. Occasional disturbance to bat-roosts. Siltation a problem from farming around sinks.

Printed Circuit Cave

March 29-30, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack

Main Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 16.3" N, 77 34' 14.2" W, +/- 5m
Farmyard Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 12.8" N, 77 34' 07.4" W, +/- 10m
Double-Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 14.7" N, 77 34' 04.1" W, +/- 10m
Positive-SE Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 17.2" N, 77 34' 05.6" W, +/- 10m
Positive-NW Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 20.5" N, 77 34' 08.6" W, +/- 10m
Emitter Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 22.2" N, 77 34' 17.1" W, +/- 30m
Northwest Entrance: WGS84 - 18 18' 23.8" N, 77 34' 13.9" W, +/- 30m

March 29, 2005

Notes: RS Stewart

This was the third day of the first expedition engaged on the Parks in Peril Project, under contract to The Nature Conservancy - Jamaica, and the first of several days that would be spent finding and assessing the many caves of the Rock Spring district. This district had been a high priority for the first TNC expedition, because many of the targets are river caves and are only accessible during the dry-season. We were fortunate in there having been an extended drought in the area for the previous two months, and high water levels were not a concern during the visit.

The night before had been spent in Windsor by Ivor, Mark, and I. After a swing through Falmouth to drop off Mark, who needed to return to Kingston, Ivor and I made the drive to Albert Town to link with Dietrich and Elizabeth. They would remain with the team for the rest of the expedition. Not long past noon, we were all assembled and en route to find "Miss Jasmine Buckle", at Rock Spring, who had been recommended to us by Adam Hyde as a possibility for renting room/s. Road construction near Albert Town resulted in a detour via Burnt Hill, and this combined with a number of stops for info in our search resulted in us not getting to Miss Buckle's until about 2:00 PM. Another hour was then consumed by negotiations and considerations. At 3:00 PM, we finally got to work.

Miss Buckle's is ideally suited as a base for investigation of the Rock Spring Caves being located in close proximity to many of them, as can be seen on the map attached to these notes - her house is about 10m from waypoint "025". All of the other points marked on the map were cave entrances found by us, and GPS referenced, during the next four days, with the exception of points 025 and 028 which are calibration points. This might give a general idea of how much ground we covered, and what we were able to accomplish. Of the fifteen caves, and multiple entrances, that we would hit, the first cave of the bunch, the one we were about to visit today, Printed Circuit Cave, (known locally as Rock Spring Cave), was the closest and most easily found, and a cave that I was already familiar with, from a visit in 2002. It is a pleasant ten minute walk from Miss Buckle's, and we were soon at the main entrance, called "Sober entrance" by the KHE, and shown in their map, which is reproduced in Jamaica Underground, with this designation.

Our visit coincided with a get-together and cook-out by some of the younger people of the community at the main entrance, (a very pleasant spot, right by the river and well suited to it), so we stopped to exchange pleasantries for a few minutes before we headed in. I would again meet many of them later in the week, in the evenings at local pubs, and found this event served well as an introduction. There were a few who were curious about what we were doing, and our answers to their questions resulted in us not being seen as visiting tourists, but as researchers who were in the field, and on the job. Time-pressed, though, so with a "likkle-more", we turned on headlamps and entered Printed Circuit Cave.

Printed Circuit Cave is a labyrinth of active stream passages. It serves as a tributary system, taking water from several upstream sources, and then at the downstream-end feeding it into the Mouth River. It is at times used for tourism by the South Trelawny Environmental Agency, with visitation restricted to several small passages that lead from the Sober Entrance to the main collector, and the main collector itself in its closest section. There are in total about 10 entrances, although not all of these are currently accessible due to rafted debris and siltation. My intention for this visit was to get to the main collector, then follow it upstream to investigate several small feeder passages. This would get us beyond the areas that experience regular visitation, and also get us into the kind of habitat that cave decapods seem to prefer, i.e. a series of small pools with a minor flow. This was accordingly done, with us ultimately entering the "Positive Stream" passages. Observations follow:

The main collector is serving as a bat roost for at least fruit-bats, with numbers estimated to be in the 500-5000 range, although probably at the lower end of this. Because the roosting space is restricted to the main collector, which constantly has water in it, guano accumulation is restricted to the passage walls, occurring as spots on the lower sections. Periplaneta americana are present, (introduced roaches), but not in the great numbers that would be found in roosts with thick beds of bat guano. Cave crickets, (U. cavicola), are present, although not in great numbers. In the smaller passages upstream of the collector, a species of trog araneae, (spider), was observed with which I am not yet familiar, (identification is underway). Two species of crab, S. verleyi, and S. windsor, are present. Surprisingly, we saw no N. farri, (predaceous fly larvae), although it must be strongly suspected that they are present in passages that we did not visit. Buffo marinus are present in the small passages that lead to the main collector. No E. cundalli were heard at the main entrance, although this might be associated with the very dry conditions, rather than the area outside being regularly used for small bashments, (get-togethers).

After visiting the smaller upstream passages, we returned to the main collector, traveled past our entry passage, and then downstream for about 100m. I found myself well in front of the group, and took the opportunity to explore a small dry passage feeding in from the direction of the Mouth River, as does Sober Entrance, and found evidence that access has sometimes been gained via this route, (old coal-oil lantern). I suspect that it leads back to the main entrance, via the passages shown on the map that are to the northwest. After venturing about 30m, much of it crawling, I returned to the main collector where the others were now within talking distance. It seemed that we'd done about as much as we could in this section for the moment, and there were more entrances to the cave that I hoped to locate from the outside, so I pulled the plug and we began to make our way out.

At about 6:00 PM, we were again outside at the Sober Entrance. It was decided that we would split into two groups of two and search upstream, and downstream, for more entrances. Dietrich and I took the upstream part, and headed southeast to see what we could find. We skirted around the low hill that rises over the cave, looking for seasonal streambeds that might feed into the system, finding nothing on the Mouth River side. Once around to the east side, we came into the back of a small farm, with house, and stopped to call out a "hello", so that the owners of the land would know that there were two men with helmets on their heads wandering through their yard. A friendly woman in her 30's appeared, and after hearing our explanation of what we were doing, directed us to a small hole near-by that might be one of the entrances that we sought. As we moved in that direction, asking if we were going the right way, the lady of the house volunteered to show us the route, and led us about 100m to a small entrance at the downstream end of a seasonal streambed. Good stuff. We thanked her greatly, and she then left us to it. I wish that I had noted her name, as we were to meet her again several times during the visit, as we searched for entrances, and her help was greatly appreciated. I remember exactly where her house is, and will try to drop by some time, get her name, and then amend these notes.

The GPS point that I recorded for the position is time-stamped 6:28 PM. Dietrich had been having some trouble with his headlamp, and it was getting close to sunset, so it was decided that I would go in by myself far enough to see if the passage went anywhere, then rejoin D and return to Miss Buckle's. The entrance is small, about 1.5m high and wide, and faces southeast. It seasonally takes water. Within 5m of the entrance, I reached a low point where there was only about 40cm of airspace, this through stalactites, so that I almost had my chin in the water. I worked my way past this, and found that the ceiling soon got higher. I pushed on, following a sinuous passage, in places 3m high, and 2 wide, and all of it with water on the floor, that just kept going. The plan was for me to have a good enough look to see if this was one of the Printed Circuit entrances, and to do this I needed to follow it until I hit side passages that I could use to compare to the map created by the Karst Hydrology Expedition, (KHE), in 1965. It took about 150m for me to hit any other passages of consequence. At this point, a t-junction was reached where the passage I followed connected with a larger passage, some 4m high and 3 wide. This junction was very nice to look at; the passage I had taken ended in a large rimstone pool about 2m above the passage it joined, and a scramble down led on, upstream to the right, and downstream to the left. This gave me something to work with, so I called it quits and retraced my route. Subsequent work, and a return visit the next day, showed that the entrance we'd found was the one near Farmyard Cave, and this was indeed part of Printed Circuit Cave.

When we linked with Ivor and Elizabeth at Miss Buckle's, we heard that they had had some success downstream, and were in a good position to tackle it again in the morning. This was how the next day would begin, with Ivor and Elizabeth searching out the downstream entrances, and Dietrich and I re-entering the cave via my route to see what we could find.

Printed Circuit Cave

March 29, 2005

Notes: DK Roggy

This was my first day of caving for the Parks in Peril Project, under contract to The Nature Conservancy - Jamaica, and I was plus en retard. We spent some time securing our accommodations in Rock spring and then went as a group into Printed Circuit Cave. Over the next couple of days we discovered that this cave was called Rock Spring Cave by the locals, but some also called it something like George Lawson cave, or something similar. I didn't write it down, and thus have forgotten it.

We went in through the main entrance, called the sober entrance and encountered a bunch of locals in front of it, engaging in some kind of cook out. We chatted a bit and then went in. Further in the cave we encountered some locals touring the cave with kerosene bottle torches.

My only notes of this first day in this cave are that it was wet and muddy. After we all came out of the cave, Stefan and myself searched around above ground for other entrances to the cave. We went over a rise and found ourselves in a patch of yam cultivation, where a woman directed us to one cave entrance. Stefan did a little preliminary investigation of what we'd been shown, while I waited outside with headlamp problems. I made note of the time that he was inside, and when he came out it was dusk.

Printed Circuit Cave

March 30, 2005

Notes: RS Stewart

The day began with a return to Printed Circuit Cave to continue our search for entrances to this complex river cave. The day before, we had entered the cave via the main entrance, conducted the assessment, and then finished off the afternoon by hunting for more of the known ten entrances. Dietrich and I had found, and partly explored, a passage that we believed to be part of the system, and this morning we would return to it and carry things further.

We had decided to split the team into pairs for the morning, and then link back up for the afternoon. Ivor and Elizabeth would explore the downstream terrain above Printed Circuit, and D and I would hit our previous passage, and then search for other entrances in the upstream areas. Dietrich and I and had soon made the hike to re-find our first target, and had then headed in.

Facing southeast, a smallish entrance, (wpt 183), takes the waters of a seasonal stream. Within 10m, the passage becomes low and wet, requiring crawling through water, between stals, with only enough airspace to keep one's chin barely above water. Beyond this mildly intimidating section, the passage becomes larger and easier. The day before, I had followed it until I had reached a T-junction, and then returned to the entrance. This time, once we hit the junction, we climbed down the 2m drop into the joining, larger passage, and headed in the upstream direction. I suspected that we might have come in from the Farmyard entrance, in which case heading upstream should pop us out at a pair of entrances to the east.

Dietrich and I made good time, following our new passage as it slowly became somewhat smaller, feeling a current of air moving past us, and feeling very optimistic about things. Within 30 minutes of having first entered the system, we saw light ahead. This was very good, since it matched what we thought should be happening if we were truly in Printed Circuit, and since we would also not have to return to our initial entry-point. The last 50m of our travel from the junction had involved much crawling over rather painful rock and formations, and we were not keen on having to repeat it. As I got close to the light ahead of us, my optimism faded as I saw large boulders blocking the exit. There were small gaps around them, but on the other side could be seen logs and other debris that had apparently been washed into what looked like an entrance pit, during Hurricane Ivan. I suggested to D that he have a look at it, and we both crouched in the final metre of the passage and searched for any possible egress. To the left, the gap seemed just large enough to squeeze through, but it had a large log jammed across on the outside. To the right it was more clear, but probably too small. Dietrich took the initiative, and began to try to clear the log from the opening on the left.

D was to do great work this day. By using a smaller branch that he found, he levered, pried, and pushed the log further and further from the gap. After some fifteen minutes of this, he finally had things clear enough to attempt to squeeze through. He wormed his way in, and up, and gradually moved away from me. I cheered him on, and he was soon out. Inexplicably, I heard him say, "I bet you always wondered where white people came from, didn't you?", which brought a laugh from me although I had no idea what he was talking about. I followed through, finding it surprisingly easy thanks to D's efforts, and after scrambling out of a very small overgrown pit, saw before me two small children staring open-mouthed, while a woman, their mother, looked-on with a smile on her face. D's comment while climbing out suddenly became clear; I laughed much harder this time.

About five metres away was the second opening of the double-entrance that we'd hoped to find. We indeed had things sorted out for this part of Printed Circuit, and had made good progress. The other opening of the double-entrance held a pool and was being used by people of the district as a water-source. While Dietrich had been working away on clearing the route out, the family who had been there filling buckets must have heard vague talking and thumping coming from what appeared to be a small grassy depression. Eventually, two white men, with helmets on their heads, had popped out of this. It was little wonder that the children were so amazed at the sight. I like to think of the stories they must have told their friends afterwards, and assume that our bizarre arrival from the underground will be a memory that will stay with them for many years.

A GPS position was taken, (wpt 184), which matched perfectly with the KHE map, and our other two previously referenced entrances, and then D and I headed off to look for the two "Positive Stream" entrances that are also noted in the KHE map of the cave. We wandered through farmland in the right direction, and after about ten minutes saw ahead of us a small building in the middle of a fine field of coffee. Shouting out a "hello", we were answered by a man who was working in the field ahead of us. A minute later, we had the pleasure of meeting the farmer who tended this fine stand of coffee, who not only had no problem with us crossing his land, but offered to show us a couple of holes close-by. Although I got his name, I didn't write it down and have forgotten it. I will try to get it again at some point in the future, and will then amend these notes accordingly, for he was a great help.

On his land, at no great distance from where we had met him, we were shown three other openings, (wpt 185, 186, 187), that lie at the downstream end of seasonal streambeds. These were all heavily silted, thanks to Hurricane Ivan, and could not be entered without some serious digging. They were GPS referenced, and the positions match the two "Positive Stream" entrances of Printed Circuit, as indicated in the KHE cave map, and the upstream entrance to Swanga Cave, (determined over the next few days after we had referenced other entrances in the area). It was good that we found these from the outside, because if we had reached them from the interior of the cave we could not have exited from them and would not have been able to get positions. Part of what we hope to accomplish is enabling monitoring of the studied caves, and if we cannot find an entrance from the outside, the process is made much more difficult.

It was now approaching noon, the meeting-time with Ivor and Elizabeth for the afternoon session, so we thanked the farmer who had helped us, found our way to the road, and hiked back to Miss Buckle's to join the rest of the crew. Once we were all linked again, we heard that the others had found, and GPS marked, several entrances in the downstream area of Printed Circuit, so between the four of us, we had knocked off about 6-7 of the entrances to PC, and made great progress in just the first several hours of the day. We would now move on to the two Harties caves, across the river from Printed Circuit.

The garbage found in the cave is being carried in, (bottle-torches, scandal bags), and washing in, (trash, buckets, etc).

We are listing this cave with a medium vulnerability. The tourism taking place here is under the auspices of the South Trelawny Environment Association, and they are sensitive to the delicacy and importance of preserving the cave. The main threat is from siltation in the upstream sinks.

Printed Circuit Cave

March 30, 2005

Notes: DK Roggy

Entering the entrance that Stefan and myself had found the previous day, we found ourselves in a low, winding stream passage. Most of the time we were stooped over and a fair amount of the time we were crawling or squatting. After about an hour we came to another entrance. It was choked up with rocks and a couple thick logs. Using my ingenuity as a civil engineer, I spent some time moving the rocks aside. I then did my best to pry and pound the logs out of the way, using sticks and some rocks where necessary for a fulcrum. I didn't want to have to go back out the way we came, and ultimately we wanted to get a GPS position of this entrance, so it made sense to do our best to try to get out this way. I managed to shove one log aside, then another and squirmed out.

Two little children were standing about 30 feet away, holding plastic buckets and looking at me with wide eyes. I said "I bet you always wondered where white people came from, didn't you?" and they just kept looking at me, dumbfounded. Stefan got a real kick out of that.

We found that we'd emerged at what appeared to be a place where there were two entrances that faced each other. This more or less helped us to make assumptions about the layout of where we'd gone in, where we'd come out, and where other entrances should be.

We proceeded north, up a rise and down into a field of coffee bushes. We encountered a farmer who showed us a couple more entrances. They both were filled with sediment and required crawling, at least as far as I went in.

Swanga (Banga) Cave March 31, 2005 - 12:00-13:30 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 18 29.7, 77 34 05.3 (Rising)
JAD69: 189825 E, 183921 N	JAD2001: 689936 E, 684210 N
Altitude: 505m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Stream passage	Accessibility: Scramble
Depth: 0	Length: 150m
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 351; Map - pg 350
Entrance size: 1.5m W x 2m H (Sink)	Entrance aspect: 0 deg true (Sink)
Vegetation in general locale: Bush, farm	Vegetation at entrance: Bush
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Stals, straws, echinolith	Palaeo resources: None
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Wet	Siltation: Moderate
Sink: Dry	Rising: Active (Good Hope Sump Ent)
Stream passage with surface activity: Minor flow	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: >99%.	Climate: Cool, humid.
Bats: None	Bat guano: N/A
Guano mining: N/A	Guano condition: N/A
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some	Neoditomyia farri: Many
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: Some
Cave crickets: None	Sesarma: Many
Other species: Buffo marinus, (several in first 15m of passage). Two species crab, S. verleyi, S. windsor
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: None	Garbage: None
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Medium. Farms around the sink are causing siltation.

Swanga (Banga) Cave

March 31, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Roggy, Slack

Notes: RS Stewart

Rising: WGS84 - 18 18' 29.7" N, 77 34' 05.3" W; Alt: 505; Accuracy: +/- 10m: Aspect: 0 deg true

Sink: WGS84 - 18 18' 25.0" N, 77 34' 06.3" W; Alt: 505; Accuracy: +/- 10m: Aspect: ~180 deg true (Impenetrable)

On this third day of our investigations of the caves of Rock Spring, Trelawny, things became rather more confusing, although ultimately the day would be instrumental in helping us to pin-down the many entrances that we were finding, to the listed caves that they led to. In total, I don't know how many entrances we found in the five days spent here, (I have yet to add them all up), but it was surely dozens, distributed amongst twelve caves, (this not counting the caves closer to Spring Garden that we also hit). Our steady GPS referencing would eventually make things clear, later in the week, and today was to supply a valuable data-point: the rising of Swanga Cave, from which we found and identified several other of our targets.

The morning had started with Carambie Cave, and after finishing it we moved up the Good Hope Glade road to start our search for Swanga, Pool, Crayfish, and Iron Maiden caves. They were all listed as being accessible from this side of the bush, arrayed across towards Printed Circuit Cave. We had linked with a friendly local man, Gary, soon after parking at the bottom of the Good Hope Glade road, (near wpt 203), who not only knew of Swanga Cave, but would take us there, (no charge - it turned out he wanted our assistance in exploring another cave he knew of and was curious about). We hiked up the road, (a very minor rural road, more of a lane), until at the end it forked off into two trails. The left branch, we were told, headed to the Good Hope Glade, where we would search for several other caves later in the week. To the right, we were told, was Swanga. This seemed odd to me, because we were now well past the listed position for Swanga, and heading even further away. Nevertheless, we followed him down the trail to see what could be found. Whatever it was, it would be unlisted.

After passing through a saddle, we descended into a large bottomland that was fairly bushed-up on the slopes. Once down, we swung to the left, and a short distance ahead we came to an enormous, shallow shelter-cave hard against the side of the valley, (wpt 195). This, we were informed, was Swanga. Now, we knew that the listed Swanga is a small stream-passage cave, with a small entrance, and this of course in no way matched what we sought. We hiked closer into it and had a look at things.

At the bottom of this giant shelter, there was an obvious seasonal stream-rising, currently impenetrable due to mud/silt. It was not active, but it was dry-season so this was no surprise. The effects of the last rising were certainly visible, though, in the form of dried mud covering a large part of the bottomland, and extending a good distance up the trunks of trees found in the valley immediately below the cave. This appeared to be, once again, a result of Hurricane Ivan, some months before, as seen at Mouth Maze. Hurricane or not, it is apparent that this rising is terrifically active at times, unlisted, and has its source undetermined.

I questioned our friend carefully about the name of this cave, and also asked if he knew of anything in the area where the "real" Swanga was supposed to be that had a small stream-passage type entrance. Indeed he knew of such a cave, locally known as "Banga". After getting a GPS position, (wpt 195), for this new "cave", we hiked back out to the end of the lane where the fork is found, and then back towards where we'd parked, and much closer to where the "real" Swanga was listed to be.

Partway back along the lane, we turned southwest onto a good trail, and after a short hike of about 100m, we came to something that looked much more promising. It was in the general vicinity of where Swanga should be found, (although it was also the same vicinity as several other caves, within the accuracy of the JU listed positions). An entrance of 2-3m high, and 2 wide, held a pool in rocks in front of it, and a minor flow of water issued forth. I took a GPS position, (wpt 204), we stuffed some things into a dry bag, and then waded in.

Beyond the entrance, the passage extends onwards to the south, upstream. We followed this, passing through places where the water is deep, and the ceiling is low, with the passage never increasing in width more than 3m wide, or in height by 3m. At times we did not do much more than keep our chins dry. Nonetheless, we moved through in good spirits, carefully looking for trog and stygo inverts as we went. After 100+ metres, we hit a sump, (part of a stream-passage where it is so low that it is flooded to the roof), and began to wend our way out.

Once out, we were still not certain which cave we had been in, Swanga or the nearby Pool or Iron Maiden caves, but we had a position, knowledge of the inside of the cave, and good biological observations. We pencilled it in as "Pool?", as it seemed to be closest to that listed position, and assumed we would get it nailed-down after more time spent searching through this part of Rock Spring for the other entrances. Later in the week, once Pool Cave and Crayfish Cave had been found, basing our search on a suspicion that this one had actually been Swanga, everything fell into place, (except for Iron Maiden Cave, which we have not found as of yet). The other nearby GPS marked entrances for Printed Circuit, along with these positions, allowed us to match everything to the unreferenced hydrological area map of the KHE expedition.

Before moving on to the biological observations, I should again note the problem with the naming of this cave. It is undoubtedly the listed Swanga Cave, but it is not the one that the people of the district call Swanga. Locally, it is known as Banga Cave. It is easy to see the origin of the confusion: the KHE were British, not great at Patois, and when hearing the names Swanga and Banga, mixed in with a lot of other "unintelligible" words, got confused and stuck the wrong name to the cave. But, what to do about this? There is a large shelter cave resurgence named Swanga. If a visiting researcher comes to the area, and asks for Swanga Cave, as described in Jamaica Underground, he will be steered the wrong way. What we did for our own clarification, when we had things sorted out, was to refer to the large shelter as Big Swanga, and the listed cave as Swanga-Banga. We suggest that these be the new names for these two different caves.

Swanga-Banga is a relatively healthy stream cave in its downstream section. There is some siltation, but not a great amount. The upstream sink, found on a separate day, is heavily silted and is taking surface water that runs through heavily cultivated land. The area between the sink and the sump, (the sump reached from the downstream end), is apparently acting as a silt-trap, with perhaps only periodic flood-pulse events flushing it through. At any rate, during our visit the downstream water was clear, and silt build-up was not critical, (to the point of filling the passage in, such as at the nearby Farmyard Cave). Sesarma spp, suspected to include both verleyi and windsor, were present in good numbers, and samples of legs were taken that have been forwarded to Dr Schubart for identification. As with the other Rock Spring caves, no shrimp were seen. Neoditomyia farri, (predaceous fly larvae), are present in good numbers. One juvenile Periplaneta americana, (roach), was seen, with the relative absence of these pests directly related to the absence of bats and the associated guano. No other macroinverts such as trog-spiders and cave-crickets were noted, this being typical for a stream-passage cave with no bats in it, and occasional flooding. Buffo marinus were occupying the outer section of the cave, close to the entrance. E. cundalli, (troglophile frogs), were present in the entrance area.

Formations are primarily composed of flowstone, draperies, and rimstone pools. The cave, like others at the same elevation in the same area, is formed along bedding-planes in the yellow to white limestone transition.

We now moved on to a cave that our new friend, Gary, wanted us to look at, one that he did not know of a name for. As realized later, it was also a cave that we were not aware of as being one of our targets, the confusingly named "Good Hope Cave". I say confusing, because there are two other caves in the district called Good Hope One Cave and Good Hope Two Cave. In preparing our information before beginning the expedition, this one had somehow escaped being put on the target-list. Separate notes for this will follow.

It was determined later that the sink to Swanga is at the position found above, but it is mud-choked. From the Rising end, where the entrance is found, the passage ends in a sump. There is no access from the Sink end to the cave, and it is not possible to pass right through.

We are listing this cave with medium vulnerability due to the upstream siltation. The sink for this cave is located downslope from well-cultivated farmland.

Swanga (Banga) Cave

March 31, 2005

Notes: DK Roggy

We made our way from the roadside where Carambie cave was located, up a dirt road and into the bush, with the assistance of a very helpful local man named Gary. We were searching for Swanga cave and he told us that he would show it to us. What he took us to was a tall shelter cave on the side of a valley, probably 60 feet tall. From the ground level at around the drip line the land dropped down sharply into this large shelter cave. I made my way down the muddy, channelled slope down about 40 feet, to where an entrance seemed to be located. It was choked up with sediment. It seems to me that this is a river rising where water comes up out of it to perhaps just below grade, then drops back down, causing the eroded channels seen. This cave is referred to here as "Big Swanga."

Next Gary showed us a small stream passage that he referred to as "Banga." This cave turned out to be the "Swanga" cave noted in Jamaica Underground, and the cave referred to here as "Swanga-Banga." Gary accompanied us on our journey into this active stream cave. The passage got low enough in places that only our heads were above water. This was a new experience for Gary, and he dealt with it very well. After traveling along the passage for about 25 minutes we reached a sump and had to turn back.

Too Far Stream Cave May 13, 2005 - 12:00-13:30 EST
District: Rock Spring	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 19 06.9, 77 34 26.0
JAD69: 189221 E, 185067 N	JAD2001: 689332 E, 685356 N
Altitude: 490m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 20m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Stream passage	Accessibility: Crawl
Depth: 6	Length: 85m
Explorers: KHE - 1965	Survey: KHE - 1965
JU Ref: Text - pg 359; Map - pg 360
Entrance size: 5m W x 1m H (Sink)	Entrance aspect: 210 deg true
Vegetation in general locale: Bush	Vegetation at entrance: Flood meadow
Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction	Bedding: Moderate	Jointing: Moderate
Speleothems: Undetermined	Palaeo resources: None
Archaeo resources: None
Hydrology: Wet	Siltation: Moderate
Sink: Active	Rising: N/A
Stream passage with surface activity: Minor flow	Stream passage without surface activity: N/A
Dark zone: >95%.	Climate: Cool, humid.
Bats: None	Bat guano: N/A
Guano mining: N/A	Guano condition: N/A
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some	Neoditomyia farri: Undetermined
Amblypygids: Undetermined	Periplaneta americana: Undetermined
Cave crickets: Undetermined	Sesarma: Undetermined
Other species: Undetermined
Visitation: None	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: None	Garbage: None
Ownership: Forestry Reserve	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Low. The cockpit that this cave is located in is seldom visited.

Too Far Stream Cave

May 13, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Slack

Notes: RS Stewart

This cave is located beyond Far Enough Cave, two cockpits further on. The fastest way to reach is it from the end of the Good Hope road, then along the track to the west, then swinging north of the first ridge on a side-track. Further access info will be found in the introductory notes to this chapter.

The cockpit where the cave is located is very deep, and steep-walled. It's quite spectacular to look at, and worth visiting even if you have no interest in the cave itself. You'll need a rope/vertigear or long etrier, over 10m, to get down from the saddle that leads to it.

We found the site after visiting Far Enough, and Good Hope Two Cave. It was quite close, (only 30 metres away), to where the KHE area plan indicates it to be, but for some reason the coordinates given in JU are very wrong, and plot it 1100 metres from the actual location. We'd spotted the error before we began our search, so this wasn't a problem.

The layout of the cockpit, with the rising, stream, and sink that are found here is as such: On the west side, low on a steep hill, a spring rises and falls over a series of rock-steps a further 10+ metres to the floor of the glade. This is quite pretty. At the bottom, the stream meanders in a deep streambed until it sinks at the entrance to Too Far. Several other tributary streambeds join before it gets there, coming from other risings that we did not see, but that appeared to be southeast of the spring. On May 13, it was obvious that the entire glade had flooded in the not-distant past, perhaps during Hurricane Ivan. Mud was extensive, with flood meadow grasses growing through it. There are no trees in the cockpit, so the flooding must be a somewhat regular occurrence.

During our visit, early in the rainy-season, the water was too high to safely enter the cave itself, but it was found and referenced. Unfortunately, the KHE map in JU does not have the orientation included, but by using the entrance aspect, it would seem that water is also entering from further to the northwest in the glade. The cave was found to become too tight in the downstream section of the active streamway, and a higher dry passage was blocked by a stal. The cave could perhaps be pushed in the dry passage. Comparing the cave map to the topos suggests that a rising might be found in a cockpit near WGS84, 18 19 20.0 N, 77 34 30.5.

The source of the Too Far spring rising is not directly associated with the Mouth Maze to Far Enough system, evident by the location in the glade. The catchments must be to the west somewhere.

We are listing this site with a low vulnerability as the glade is seldom visited.