Jamaican Caves Organization
www.jamaicancaves.org

THE JUNE 2004 EXPEDITION (Jun 21/04)
Cavers Stewart, Conolley, Bellinger, Roggy, Taylor, Slack, Hyde, Stirling, Peterson, and Timmons, have recently completed a two-week expedition that was engaged in the exploration, assessment, mapping, and georeferencing of over twenty-five caves and sinkholes located in the parishes of St James and St Ann, Jamaica.

The most notable of our accomplishments were the successful descent of the 160 metre deep Volcano Hole; the georeferencing and documenting of Taino petroglyphs at Kempshot Cave; the mapping of a Taino site, near Runaway Bay, for Dr. Allsworth-Jones, of UWI; the discovery and first exploration of a stream-passage cave, in the same district as Rudist Rock Cave, that contains many large, fine examples of these extinct, large, reef-building bivalves; the first descent of a sinkhole, found last expedition, that was done while georeferencing the south end of the Troy Trail; rainy-season observations, exploration and georeferencing of the upstream Niagara River Cave system; the determination of the hydrology of the Cool Garden Caves; and further work on the St James project. In addition to this, prep work was done for the Cockpit Country Transect Expedition.

Of the thirteen days spent caving, nine were devoted to the St James project. It was during this work that ten of our twelve new additions to the Jamaican Cave Register were found. This was also when the petroglyphs of Kempshot and the new rudist cave were documented. Great progress has been made and an interim report will be forwarded to the collaborating parties in several weeks time.

We would like to thank all of the volunteers who were with us this session for their valuable assistance. We must also thank NEPA for allowing us to conduct our current project in St James; we hope that it might contribute to the knowledge and preservation of the caves and karst of Jamaica. Most importantly, the JCO would like to thank the people of Roehampton, Tangle River, Vaughansfield, Flamstead, Niagara, and Linton Park for their great help and good company; bless-up.