![]() |
Jamaican Caving Notes |
![]() |
|
|
Sheep Pen Cave May 9, 2005 - 11:00-11:30 EST
|
||
District: Windsor |
Parish: Trelawny |
|
WGS84 L/L: 18 21 17.4; 77 39 06.6 |
|
|
JAD69: 180995 E, 189106 N |
JAD2001: 681106 E, 689395 N |
|
Altitude: 100m WGS84 |
Accuracy: +/- 20m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical |
|
Type: Shelter cave |
Accessibility: Walk-in |
|
Depth: 0 |
Length: 10m |
|
Explorers: Anthony - 1920 |
Survey: N/A |
|
JU Ref: Text - pg 330; Map - none |
|
|
Entrance size: Overhang only |
Entrance aspect: 50 deg true |
|
Vegetation in general locale: Bush, farm |
Vegetation at entrance: Bush |
|
Rock type: White limestone |
Bedding: Poor |
Jointing: Moderate |
Speleothems: Stals |
Palaeo resources: Bone breccia |
|
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: 0%. |
Climate: Warm, dry. |
|
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: None. This isn't an actual cave, just an overhang. It has no dark zone. |
||
Visitation: None |
Speleothem damage: None |
|
Graffiti: None |
Garbage: None |
|
Ownership: Private |
Protection: None |
|
Vulnerability: Low. The site has virtually no visitation. Land-use in the area has not changed in some time. There is no immediate threat to any palaeo resources that are still extant. |
Sheep Pen Cave May 9, 2005 Stewart. Notes: RS Stewart This is one of Anthony's palaeo sites, and is across the road, on the south side, from Contra Sheep Pen Hole. Like Contra Pen, there is no actual cave, just an overhang. Because these two sites are very similar in nature, I will quote extensively from the notes for Contra Pen. "Contra Sheep Pen Hole is an overhang, rather than a cave, that is located about 400 metres to the west of the bridge in Windsor. It sits low in a hill a very short distance to the north of the road. The significance of the site is in a palaeontological context, as bone breccia has been found here, as well as at Sheep Pen Cave situated immediately across the road. There wasn't much work required to investigate this site, and accordingly I had reserved it for a "day off", during the second PiP expedition, when I would be on my own. My visit to both this site, and Sheep Pen Cave across the road consisted mostly of getting GPS positions for what seemed to be the central part of the overhang. Palaeo work had been done here by Dr Donald McFarlane, in 1993, and I would not interfere with extant breccia, merely note the site as part of the project. There are a number of other similar, but unnamed, locations in Windsor district that have the same potential for investigations of extinct Quaternary vertebrates as Contra Sheep Pen Hole, but this happens to be one with a designation in Jamaica Underground. That is the primary reason why we included it in the Parks in Peril Project visits. It is not a speleological site, as such. It might be of value for someone to carry out a systematic search for other shelters and overhangs in the district that have good bone breccia, and then obtain accurate GPS positions and make this information available to interested parties, but in a speleo sense, as with Contra Sheep Pen, and Sheep Pen, these sites will not be caves. The actual location of the site, and the corresponding position, are rather vague, because there is no particular entrance to mark, just a stretch of overhanging rock. Nevertheless, by using the position listed above, and looking along the cliff, one will easily locate everything that might be of interest. Biologically, there is only the regular terrestrial flora and fauna here, because there is no dark zone. E. cundalli might occasionally use the cracks and fissures, but none were noted during my visit."
|
Jamaican Cave Notes - Main Page | May 2005 Caving Notes - Main Page |