texascavers Digest 6 Jan 2014 02:26:32 -0000 Issue 1909
Topics (messages 23218 through 23230):
Re: Bigfoot
23218 by: Louise Power
Re: black bear remains in Texas caves
23219 by: Logan McNatt
23220 by: Pete Lindsley
23221 by: Gregg Williams
Facebook news
23222 by: David
23223 by: Bill Bentley
Tracking app
23224 by: Andy Gluesenkamp
Re: Facebook news (and bears)
23225 by: John Greer
23229 by: John Greer
23230 by: Don Arburn
book review: caves of Meghalaya, India
23226 by: Mixon Bill
Re: Facebook & Bigfoot
23227 by: David
Correction
23228 by: David
Administrivia:
To subscribe to the digest, e-mail:
<texascavers-digest-subscr...@texascavers.com>
To unsubscribe from the digest, e-mail:
<texascavers-digest-unsubscr...@texascavers.com>
To post to the list, e-mail:
<texascavers@texascavers.com>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Begin Message ---
My sister sent me the following link from the Beaumont paper about the
resurgence of black bears in East Texas.
http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Black-bears-come-home-to-East-Texas-4793763.php
We have them here in Oregon, too. In hard times they wander into the outlying
areas around Ashland. I don't remember who said it, but keep your camps clean
and your food hanging high to discourage bears from making themselves at home.
Just remember, black bears are opportunistic feeders who would much rather find
their food in the wild than around people. The majority of their diet is
vegetation To find out a lot about black bears, go to the North American Bear
Center site: http://www.bear.org/website/ There is a lot on black bear diet on
the site today.
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
David et al.,
Refer to your copy of /50 Years of Texas Caving*:/ the section on "Bones", pp 279-285. Bones of black bear (/Ursus americanus /sp.) have been
found in numerous Texas caves. Not surprising because historical accounts mention that there were a great many of them during the 1800s,
especially in the Edwards Plateau/Hill Country, and in far west Texas. In addition to those already mentioned on the list, here are a few more
examples, certainly not all:
(edited excerpts from /50 Years/):
" Edwards County is especially noted for the numerous sites with remains
of /Ursus americanus/, the once common black bear . . .
In 1956, Ken Baker found black bear bones in Saltillo Cave . . .
In 1963, cavers including Pete Lindsley and Preston McMichael collected a black bear skull and bones from Deep Cave . . . (photo by
Pete on p. 284)
In 1967, Kunath found black bear bones in Cardiac Cave . . ."
Also, around 1995, Colorado Bend State Park staff discovered the articulated remains of 2 black bear (mother & cub?) in Cicurina Cave (San Saba
County). They brought out the adult skull, but the rest of the remains were washed away in a major flood event before they could be recovered.
And in the late 1990s, Bill Stiver recovered a black bear skull from one of the
caves on his former ranch in Kimble County.
In addition to bones, numerous claw marks of one or more bears are evident in the upper "boneyard" levels of Deep and Blowhole caves, scratched
into the soft limestone. One can imagine the roars echoing through the cave as the unfortunate bear(s) try to climb up the vertical walls, in
the total darkness, in vain.
*Don't have a copy of /50 Years of Texas Caving/? You don't know what you're missing. You will be amazed how many of your questions about
Texas caves, cavers, cave bears, and other subjects you haven't even thought about can be answered in the 526 pages.
Contact Carl Kunath in San Angelo at carl.kun...@suddenlink.net
or Logan McNatt in Austin at lmcn...@austin.rr.com
Logan
On 1/4/2014 10:28 AM, Mark Minton wrote:
I agree with Andy that the marks David mentioned are likely from a bear. I've seen such marks in several caves in Virginia and West
Virginia, often quite far from any known entrance and also not associated with any bones. We've also found large wallows in mud floors that
are said to be where bears slept. These signs seem to be more common than I would have imagined.
The marks Steve mentioned in Powell's are likely from a raccoon. We found marks like that several places in Honey Creek, also far from
any known entrance. Of course it doesn't take much of an entrance for a raccoon, as opposed to a bear...
Mark
At 11:05 AM 1/4/2014, Andy Gluesenkamp wrote:
Bear? I've found bear bones in SA caves and there was even a sighting in a
local park a few years back.
At 10:42 AM 1/4/2014, Steve Keselik wrote:
Some years back in Powell's cave we were hoping to find a shorter route to the stream passage via the maze. We didn't find any dig sites that
looked promising but we did note some scratch marks about 4' up on the wall that looked like a small animal was trying to get out of the
water as they all were in a horizontal line. If that was the case then that means there was water pretty high in the cave, In retrospect
maybe it was just bat marks but the line was very straight with no projections to grab on to....Steve
On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 2:47 AM, David <dlocklea...@gmail.com> wrote:
A caver in the San Antonio area once told me ( while sittiing around the
camp-fire in 1995 ) that they were in a cave in or near Bexar County
and saw claw marks on the wall, that were made by an animal that
appeared to be taller than a man and appeared the animal was trying to
climb out of the cave. I think he said it was a short pit
entrance, and there were no bones in the cave of such animal.
My fuzzy memory is that in this conversation he mentioned a Chivos Cave, but
I don't know if that was the one he was referring to.
I think he said there were 4 scratch marks on each hand though.
Please reply to mmin...@caver.net
Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Visit our website: http://texascavers.com
To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com
For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
The skull collected (with permission of Mr. Loys Newman) from Deep Cave was
delivered to Bob Slaughter, Schuler Museum at SMU in Dallas. Slaughter reported
that this particular individual, approximately dated ca. 1900-1920, placed very
high on the then current Boone & Crocket list of large bears killed in the 20th
century. The other bones from this individual were left in place in the cave.
Numerous bear scratches are still visible in the upper parts of Deep Cave,
including small ones which suggests a family of black bears lived in the cave
in the early 1900's.
- Pete
On Jan 4, 2014, at 10:39 AM, Logan McNatt wrote:
In 1963, cavers including Pete Lindsley and Preston McMichael collected a
black bear skull and bones from Deep Cave . . . (photo by Pete on p. 284)
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
We found a set of scratches was found in the Helictite room on a survey
trip last year. They were quite large and had a span of about 4 feet or so,
but if they were bear scratches I will leave up to the experrts.
Gregg
On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 2:16 PM, Pete Lindsley <caverp...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The skull collected (with permission of Mr. Loys Newman) from Deep Cave
> was delivered to Bob Slaughter, Schuler Museum at SMU in Dallas. Slaughter
> reported that this particular individual, approximately dated ca.
> 1900-1920, placed very high on the then current Boone & Crocket list of
> large bears killed in the 20th century. The other bones from this
> individual were left in place in the cave. Numerous bear scratches are
> still visible in the upper parts of Deep Cave, including small ones which
> suggests a family of black bears lived in the cave in the early 1900's.
>
> - Pete
>
> On Jan 4, 2014, at 10:39 AM, Logan McNatt wrote:
>
> In 1963, cavers including Pete Lindsley and Preston McMichael
> collected a black bear skull and bones from Deep Cave . . . (photo by Pete
> on p. 284)
>
>
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
This is just a recap of the current status of Facebook related
caving sites in Texas. This post is intended for newbies, but also
shows some of the areas for improvement in using Facebook as a tool
for cave related communication. ( Disclaimer: Please ignore if you are
a Facebook hater or disinterested in anything I have to post. )
If you do not wish to use Facebook, or follow any of the sites below, you
should at least check out the page, "Cavers of Facebook," as that is an
international site that post very interesting current events.
State-wide groups:
________________
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TexasCaveManagement/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/28567352179/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/418030138211479/
Grottos:
________
https://www.facebook.com/groups/443324142423059/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BexarGrotto/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/102420208204/
( last post in April ?? )
https://www.facebook.com/pages/DFW-Grotto/328738567141784
( last post 20 months ago )
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cowtown-Grotto/273063512785471
( page-manager indicated in June that page was not getting updated )
If the A.S.S. has a page, it looks forgotten, or I can not access their official
page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aggie-Speleological-Society/48239927150
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lubbock-Area-Grotto/175254709161485
( appears to only be used to announce upcoming meeting date )
I could not find a link for UT Grotto
Maverick Grotto's attempt at a virtual Facebook grotto seems to be in limbo.
( Right ?? )
Commercial Caves:
_________________
https://www.facebook.com/cwanTX
https://www.facebook.com/naturalbridgecavernstx
https://www.facebook.com/InnerSpaceCavern
https://www.facebook.com/Cascadecavernstexas
https://www.facebook.com/cavernsofsonora
Longhorn Caverns link is fubared
https://www.facebook.com/WonderWorldCaveAndPark
( not much info about cave )
Non-commericial caves:
________________________
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kickapoo-Cavern-State-Park-Texas-Parks-and-Wildlife/118032881613887
https://www.facebook.com/SaveBrackenBatCave
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Preserve-Protect-Gunnels-Cave/111719558859888
( inactive )
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Old-Tunnel-State-Park-Texas-Parks-and-Wildlife/446917395333793
https://www.facebook.com/groups/109179009103131/
Nature groups:
____________
https://www.facebook.com/BatCon
https://www.facebook.com/groups/213300932024864/
( currently struggling to stay afloat )
Texas cavers:
_____________
Only a wild guess of about 400, but no idea how many are actively post caving
related things on their own Facebook page. The following are just examples
of cavers who post things about caves on their personal Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/caverarch
https://www.facebook.com/galen.falgout
https://www.facebook.com/bill.steele.587
https://www.facebook.com/cavebiology
You could say there are about 600 Texas cavers on Facebook if you count
arm-chair cavers, or people that were once cavers, but have kind of dropped
out or gone on a hiatus, but they, like me, never or seldom post anything about
caving on their page. But the TSA page shows 611 Facebookers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/28567352179/members/
Feel free to correct me.
David Locklear
independent arm-chair caver ( semi-retired ) in Harris County, Texas
NSS # 27639
P.S. Here are some other pages worth glancing at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/NSS2015/
https://www.facebook.com/nss75th
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
David,
PBSS has a Facebook Page and it is up to date... last post December
21st, 2013, not in April, you have to be a member to see the posts... Duh!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/102420208204/
But with that in mind, who appointed you the official unofficial
re-caper of Facebook cave related groups?
99.99 % of the people who create or maintain these cave related Facebook
Group pages are volunteers, hadn't known of many getting paid to do
that. I am glad we have them at all.
Most of these groups are like the grotto web pages and should be
informative as to the date and time & place for the meetings. And any
other grotto related information.
While some of your emails I ignore, I get tired of you ridiculing cavers
and now volunteers in a public forum like this mailing list.
And you wonder why lots cavers don't care for you?
If your doing all this "research" then research who maintains these
groups and notify them individually.
Just my thoughts,
Bill
On 1/4/2014 11:49 PM, David wrote:
This is just a recap of the current status of Facebook related
caving sites in Texas. This post is intended for newbies, but also
shows some of the areas for improvement in using Facebook as a tool
for cave related communication. ( Disclaimer: Please ignore if you are
a Facebook hater or disinterested in anything I have to post. )
If you do not wish to use Facebook, or follow any of the sites below, you
should at least check out the page, "Cavers of Facebook," as that is an
international site that post very interesting current events.
State-wide groups:
________________
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TexasCaveManagement/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/28567352179/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/418030138211479/
Grottos:
________
https://www.facebook.com/groups/443324142423059/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BexarGrotto/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/102420208204/
( last post in April ?? )
https://www.facebook.com/pages/DFW-Grotto/328738567141784
( last post 20 months ago )
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cowtown-Grotto/273063512785471
( page-manager indicated in June that page was not getting updated )
If the A.S.S. has a page, it looks forgotten, or I can not access their official
page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aggie-Speleological-Society/48239927150
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lubbock-Area-Grotto/175254709161485
( appears to only be used to announce upcoming meeting date )
I could not find a link for UT Grotto
Maverick Grotto's attempt at a virtual Facebook grotto seems to be in limbo.
( Right ?? )
Commercial Caves:
_________________
https://www.facebook.com/cwanTX
https://www.facebook.com/naturalbridgecavernstx
https://www.facebook.com/InnerSpaceCavern
https://www.facebook.com/Cascadecavernstexas
https://www.facebook.com/cavernsofsonora
Longhorn Caverns link is fubared
https://www.facebook.com/WonderWorldCaveAndPark
( not much info about cave )
Non-commericial caves:
________________________
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kickapoo-Cavern-State-Park-Texas-Parks-and-Wildlife/118032881613887
https://www.facebook.com/SaveBrackenBatCave
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Preserve-Protect-Gunnels-Cave/111719558859888
( inactive )
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Old-Tunnel-State-Park-Texas-Parks-and-Wildlife/446917395333793
https://www.facebook.com/groups/109179009103131/
Nature groups:
____________
https://www.facebook.com/BatCon
https://www.facebook.com/groups/213300932024864/
( currently struggling to stay afloat )
Texas cavers:
_____________
Only a wild guess of about 400, but no idea how many are actively post caving
related things on their own Facebook page. The following are just examples
of cavers who post things about caves on their personal Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/caverarch
https://www.facebook.com/galen.falgout
https://www.facebook.com/bill.steele.587
https://www.facebook.com/cavebiology
You could say there are about 600 Texas cavers on Facebook if you count
arm-chair cavers, or people that were once cavers, but have kind of dropped
out or gone on a hiatus, but they, like me, never or seldom post anything about
caving on their page. But the TSA page shows 611 Facebookers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/28567352179/members/
Feel free to correct me.
David Locklear
independent arm-chair caver ( semi-retired ) in Harris County, Texas
NSS # 27639
P.S. Here are some other pages worth glancing at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/NSS2015/
https://www.facebook.com/nss75th
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Visit our website: http://texascavers.com
To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com
For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Along the lines of the bear scratch discussion, here's a link to a nifty animal
tracking iphone app by our state mammalogist:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/itrack-wildlife/id478516226?mt=8
He's got a nice pic of a tree trunk with four-claw and five-claw bear
scratches.
Andy
Sent from my iPhone
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
"... and notify them individually"
Pretty much my thoughts exactly -- if you want to run someone down and be
overtly rude and personally critical, please do it in private. We all
appreciate and applaud the efforts going into group or personal websites, but
some of us don't spend all our time trying to find them and keep up with the
information, and we occasionally use synthesis listings and pseudo-indices. The
index list that you overtly criticize is expressly for new cavers, people
interested in cave related communication, and others that are not so informed
as yourself. I also note that you don't want anyone to access your website --
not especially in the vein of sharing. And exactly how many non-volunteer
cavers are there. Seems like an unnecessary jab.
I should be making this a private message, but since the original was posted to
the entire group, I have responded to all. I sure hope this is the last of such
criticism and we can get back to bear, raccoon, and coyote scratches, or even
caving. I had intended to provide more information on bear remains in (and bear
use of) caves in central TX and the Devils River area, but this got me
side-tracked. On the subject of bear scratches and bear use, I sure hope
someone puts out a general call for info (and especially to people like Reddell
and Russell), synthesizes it all, and does an article in the Texas Caver. It
would be a worthwhile research tool to much more than just cavers.
jg
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Bentley" <ca...@caver.net>
To: "David" <dlocklea...@gmail.com>; "CaveTex" <texascavers@texascavers.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2014 6:33 AM
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Facebook news
David,
PBSS has a Facebook Page and it is up to date... last post December
21st, 2013, not in April, you have to be a member to see the posts... Duh!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/102420208204/
But with that in mind, who appointed you the official unofficial
re-caper of Facebook cave related groups?
99.99 % of the people who create or maintain these cave related Facebook
Group pages are volunteers, hadn't known of many getting paid to do
that. I am glad we have them at all.
Most of these groups are like the grotto web pages and should be
informative as to the date and time & place for the meetings. And any
other grotto related information.
While some of your emails I ignore, I get tired of you ridiculing cavers
and now volunteers in a public forum like this mailing list.
And you wonder why lots cavers don't care for you?
If your doing all this "research" then research who maintains these
groups and notify them individually.
Just my thoughts,
Bill
On 1/4/2014 11:49 PM, David wrote:
> This is just a recap of the current status of Facebook related
> caving sites in Texas. This post is intended for newbies, but also
> shows some of the areas for improvement in using Facebook as a tool
> for cave related communication. ( Disclaimer: Please ignore if you are
> a Facebook hater or disinterested in anything I have to post. )
>
> If you do not wish to use Facebook, or follow any of the sites below, you
> should at least check out the page, "Cavers of Facebook," as that is an
> international site that post very interesting current events.
>
> >
>
> Feel free to correct me.
>
> David Locklear
> NSS # 27639
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Jerry -- I'll send this to the whole list since some people might be vaguely
interested (a couple have written me for various details, or lack thereof).
Litter Barrel is south of the hwy, about 200 yds or so east of the
somewhat-less-than-friendly Border Patrol stop. Not only is the litter barrel
gone but also the stile over the fence (which now has been rebuilt). I wanted
to walk over there recently (for a number of reasons) but was encouraged that I
should move on -- I might not be shot. Best now to get permission from the
landowner (Whitehead?) and go in through the wire gate and two-track about 1/4
to 1/2 mile or so to the east, go up to the windmill and around the hill, then
west somehow up to the cave, which now is in rather dense brush (as I observed
only from the hwy).
If anyone actually gets out there, will you please have them give me the
contact details (and utm), because I want to get back to collect small soil
samples from the midden (again!) by the entrance and stratified deposits in the
main room (if the hole is still open) for AMS dates -- which I bet are all
probably around 1300 ad. The same is true for Airport Cave (Comstock) where we
found (long ago!) a Late Prehistoric chipping station with a ton of super-thin
high-quality flakes and some arrowpoints back in a narrow side passage far
inside the cave (I was much skinnier then, but a large part of my back is still
on the wall going through the crevice, I'm sure). I have been told that the
crevice is now filled with mud, but I'd like to know for sure.
As an aside -- one of the last times I went into Litter Barrel, I was sliding
down under the entrance ledge on my back, with my chest against the ledge, and
up beside my left ear (maybe 4" away) came this 6' rattlesnake calmly exiting
the cave. She was clearly nearly as big around as my neck. I just laid there,
unable to run for the toilet paper on what I was sure was my final trip to
heaven. It all came out okay, but the adrenalin was certainly active.
In case I don't get to it (probably):
Central TX: We found bear remains (bones) in several rockshelters and shallow
caves (maybe 4-5) that I now cannot remember the locations of. I am positive I
made notes on several (which also contained archeological materials), but at
this point I have no idea where the notes may be (probably in the TARL files at
Balcones). I will surely forward them to TSS if they turn up. I remember bones
(mandible, partial skull, long bones) in a small shelter southwest of Austin,
probably not Onion Creek, but somewhere near there (presumably Travis or Hays
Co.). Also others in a couple of shelters in the general Pedernales-Lick Creek
area, the general area northwest of West Caves (the preserve) -- an area of
profuse rockshelters and crevice caves. There were others, but in those days of
general survey, we were not interested in every bear bone we ran across, a
common attitude -- we are all interested in what we are interested in, and
little else, and we simply look at it, remember it for a while, and then forget
the whole thing! I have no specific site locations that can be plotted. I have
lots of bear encounter stories, but none from central TX. One thing to look for
however (from a site we found a couple of years ago in Wyoming) are bear
scratches on cave walls made by Indians scratching with a detached bear paw --
the only site we have seen has the scratches forming a patterned design (which
would take a whole paragraph to describe). Cavers should look for such
occurrences, which will be different from normal animal scratches (including
bears and giant ground sloths, both of which occur in caves).
Devils: According lots of old-timers there used to be lots of bears on the
upper part of the main river, say from Baker's Crossing north to Pecan Springs.
An old German trapper used to live west of Pecan Springs (before he was
murdered by a couple of no-goods from Langtry), and he used to kill bears all
up around there sometime around 1900 (prob. 1887-1920). I have a photograph of
a bear killed by Dave Baker probably in the 1920s-30s just up northwest of
Baker's Crossing (he lived in the big house by the crossing). In essentially
the same area is a small cave probably a half mile above (north of) the
crossing and a mile east of the river, located in the bottom of the canyon and
used for years as a bear den in the early days -- Dave Baker came to the
country about 1882 or so, and it was an active den at that time. Part of the
small shallow cave had been walled up slightly with dry-laid rocks and when
opened by the early ranchers was found to contain an old Spanish saddle,
presumably left by Indians. When I visited the cave (early to mid 1960s) there
was still bear hair and scat in the back of the shelter-like cave. There are
lots of small caves in that same area with relatively long very narrow passages
used by javelinas, and probably in the past by bears, but I have not noted any
evidence of associated bear use.
Also in the mid 1960s I observed a black bear on the Rio Grande, probably 4-5
miles above the mouth of the Pecos (and across from Ocotillo Cave, 48VV188, a
rockshelter that we excavated). He was ambling across the cane-covered vega on
the Mexican side. I have not seen any bear scratches or bear bones in real
caves in the area.
I once did an article (which Ron Ralph can look up if anyone is interested) in
The Artifact (El Paso Archaeological Society) that discussed early fauna in Val
Verde County. I don't remember what I included on bears (or eagles), if
anything, but I did mention the last bison bull on the divide just west of the
Pecos River, about even with the railroad bridge (for those who used to
practice illegal rappelling).
jg
----- Original Message -----
From: Jerry
To: jgr...@greerservices.com
Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2014 4:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Facebook news (and bears)
Hi John,
Personally, I'm very interested in your bear observations for Central Texas
and especially the Devils River area. Anything you might want to share will be
put into the TSS database.
Also, if you remember the location of Litter Barrel Cave in Val Verde County,
we still don't have a good location on it as the road was widened some years
ago and the litter barrel went away.
Thanks !
Jerry Atkinson
Texas Speleological Survey
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Our neighbor in Terrell County captured a bear on video, this summer, south of
hwy 90, east of Dryden and west of Langtry.
Sent cellularly.
-Don
> On Jan 5, 2014, at 8:17 PM, John Greer <jgr...@greerservices.com> wrote:
>
> Jerry -- I'll send this to the whole list since some people might be vaguely
> interested (a couple have written me for various details, or lack thereof).
>
> Litter Barrel is south of the hwy, about 200 yds or so east of the
> somewhat-less-than-friendly Border Patrol stop. Not only is the litter barrel
> gone but also the stile over the fence (which now has been rebuilt). I wanted
> to walk over there recently (for a number of reasons) but was encouraged that
> I should move on -- I might not be shot. Best now to get permission from the
> landowner (Whitehead?) and go in through the wire gate and two-track about
> 1/4 to 1/2 mile or so to the east, go up to the windmill and around the hill,
> then west somehow up to the cave, which now is in rather dense brush (as I
> observed only from the hwy).
>
> If anyone actually gets out there, will you please have them give me the
> contact details (and utm), because I want to get back to collect small soil
> samples from the midden (again!) by the entrance and stratified deposits in
> the main room (if the hole is still open) for AMS dates -- which I bet are
> all probably around 1300 ad. The same is true for Airport Cave (Comstock)
> where we found (long ago!) a Late Prehistoric chipping station with a ton of
> super-thin high-quality flakes and some arrowpoints back in a narrow side
> passage far inside the cave (I was much skinnier then, but a large part of my
> back is still on the wall going through the crevice, I'm sure). I have been
> told that the crevice is now filled with mud, but I'd like to know for sure.
>
> As an aside -- one of the last times I went into Litter Barrel, I was sliding
> down under the entrance ledge on my back, with my chest against the ledge,
> and up beside my left ear (maybe 4" away) came this 6' rattlesnake calmly
> exiting the cave. She was clearly nearly as big around as my neck. I just
> laid there, unable to run for the toilet paper on what I was sure was my
> final trip to heaven. It all came out okay, but the adrenalin was certainly
> active.
>
> In case I don't get to it (probably):
> Central TX: We found bear remains (bones) in several rockshelters and shallow
> caves (maybe 4-5) that I now cannot remember the locations of. I am positive
> I made notes on several (which also contained archeological materials), but
> at this point I have no idea where the notes may be (probably in the TARL
> files at Balcones). I will surely forward them to TSS if they turn up. I
> remember bones (mandible, partial skull, long bones) in a small shelter
> southwest of Austin, probably not Onion Creek, but somewhere near there
> (presumably Travis or Hays Co.). Also others in a couple of shelters in the
> general Pedernales-Lick Creek area, the general area northwest of West Caves
> (the preserve) -- an area of profuse rockshelters and crevice caves. There
> were others, but in those days of general survey, we were not interested in
> every bear bone we ran across, a common attitude -- we are all interested in
> what we are interested in, and little else, and we simply look at it,
> remember it for a while, and then forget the whole thing! I have no specific
> site locations that can be plotted. I have lots of bear encounter stories,
> but none from central TX. One thing to look for however (from a site we found
> a couple of years ago in Wyoming) are bear scratches on cave walls made by
> Indians scratching with a detached bear paw -- the only site we have seen has
> the scratches forming a patterned design (which would take a whole paragraph
> to describe). Cavers should look for such occurrences, which will be
> different from normal animal scratches (including bears and giant ground
> sloths, both of which occur in caves).
>
> Devils: According lots of old-timers there used to be lots of bears on the
> upper part of the main river, say from Baker's Crossing north to Pecan
> Springs. An old German trapper used to live west of Pecan Springs (before he
> was murdered by a couple of no-goods from Langtry), and he used to kill bears
> all up around there sometime around 1900 (prob. 1887-1920). I have a
> photograph of a bear killed by Dave Baker probably in the 1920s-30s just up
> northwest of Baker's Crossing (he lived in the big house by the crossing). In
> essentially the same area is a small cave probably a half mile above (north
> of) the crossing and a mile east of the river, located in the bottom of the
> canyon and used for years as a bear den in the early days -- Dave Baker came
> to the country about 1882 or so, and it was an active den at that time. Part
> of the small shallow cave had been walled up slightly with dry-laid rocks and
> when opened by the early ranchers was found to contain an old Spanish saddle,
> presumably left by Indians. When I visited the cave (early to mid 1960s)
> there was still bear hair and scat in the back of the shelter-like cave.
> There are lots of small caves in that same area with relatively long very
> narrow passages used by javelinas, and probably in the past by bears, but I
> have not noted any evidence of associated bear use.
>
> Also in the mid 1960s I observed a black bear on the Rio Grande, probably 4-5
> miles above the mouth of the Pecos (and across from Ocotillo Cave, 48VV188, a
> rockshelter that we excavated). He was ambling across the cane-covered vega
> on the Mexican side. I have not seen any bear scratches or bear bones in real
> caves in the area.
>
> I once did an article (which Ron Ralph can look up if anyone is interested)
> in The Artifact (El Paso Archaeological Society) that discussed early fauna
> in Val Verde County. I don't remember what I included on bears (or eagles),
> if anything, but I did mention the last bison bull on the divide just west of
> the Pecos River, about even with the railroad bridge (for those who used to
> practice illegal rappelling).
> jg
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jerry
> To: jgr...@greerservices.com
> Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2014 4:59 PM
> Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Facebook news (and bears)
>
> Hi John,
>
> Personally, I'm very interested in your bear observations for Central Texas
> and especially the Devils River area. Anything you might want to share will
> be put into the TSS database.
>
> Also, if you remember the location of Litter Barrel Cave in Val Verde County,
> we still don't have a good location on it as the road was widened some years
> ago and the litter barrel went away.
>
> Thanks !
>
> Jerry Atkinson
> Texas Speleological Survey
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
"Cave Pearls of Meghalaya: A Cave Inventory Covering the Jaintia
Hills, Meghalaya, India. Volume 1, Pala Range and Kopili Valley."
Edited by Thomas Arbenz. By the editor, Matzendorf, Switzerland; 2012.
ISBN 978-3-033-03637-6. A4 (approx. US letter) size, 265 pages
hardbound, plus disk. $45. Order for $70 postpaid via PayPal to tho...@arbenz.ch
.
Meghalaya, an Indian state sandwiched between Assam to the north and
Bangladesh to the south, it the wettest place on earth. Two towns in
its karst receive over ten meters of monsoon rains every year. Rain
makes caves. Until the early 1990s, only a couple of caves more than a
kilometer long were known in India. Then various foreign cavers,
mainly from Europe, and the Meghalaya Adventurers Association formed
the Caving in the Abode of the Clouds Project and started
systematically exploring and surveying caves in Meghalaya. In 2006,
their interest was drawn to the Pala range of hills, where a village
headman claimed that Krem Tyngheng was 20 kilometers long. Another
local, whose wide knowledge of the area was perhaps due to his having
wives in seven villages, claimed that the cave ran all the way through
the hills. It turned out that they were both absolutely right.
This book, edited and largely written by Swiss caver Thomas Arbenz,
chief cartographer for the project since 2002, is another of those
beautifully produced and lavishly illustrated reports that seem to
come almost exclusively from Europe. Following an overview of the
geology and geography of the area, there are chapters on the
expeditions of 2010, 2011, and 2012, which focused entirely on the
area covered by this book, followed by three chapters on the cave
biology of the area. Is there a shorter binomial in all of biology
than the bat Ia io? Then the "inventory" starts on page 108. All the
large and small caves are described, with the longest section, 28
pages, on the 21.25-kilometer Tyngheng–Dieng Jem System. There are
regional line plots of the caves superimposed on aerial images, as
well as nicely drawn detailed maps of all but the least significant
caves. Just a couple of the maps include profiles; these are
horizontal river caves, explored, needless to say, during the dry
season. Only samples of the maps are printed for the longest caves,
with six full maps as PDF files on the disk inside the back cover. The
PDFs can be a bit difficult to navigate on screen, because they have
to be viewed at nearly actual size to see the rich detail and they are
up to about 100 inches square. But they're still a lot better than an
88-square-foot paper map, if such a thing could even be made.
A bit pricey by the time the heavy book is mailed from Switzerland,
but a model project report and valuable reference. Buy it so that
Arbenz can afford to publish volume 2.
--Bill Mixon
----------------------------------------
Bigamy is having one wife too many. So is monogamy.
----------------------------------------
You may "reply" to the address this message
came from, but for long-term use, save:
Personal: bmi...@alumni.uchicago.edu
AMCS: a...@amcs-pubs.org or sa...@amcs-pubs.org
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
I had no intention of criticizing the Facebookers. I was unaware that the
pages I noted kept non-members from seeing everything, as I was able to see
the post and photos of that page. So I am saying I misspoke.
I was only trying to share an observation that in 2013 Facebook played a
role in caver communications in Texas, that some newbies might not know
about.
I was only suggesting there is something in that material worthy of
discussion. So if someone wants to present the idea differently, they can
use the links posted, or word it so that it is interesting to read.
I did leave off the Devil's Sinkhole page.
I was hoping someone would add to what I was trying to say.
And, I would never criticize Bill Bentley, so if that is what I did, then I
am sorry.
It was just 5 years ago that a majority of cavers were hesitant to use
Facebook as a tool for communication, so the jist of my article was the
contrast in idealogy.
I still feel like Facebook is a fad, as I reported when I first started
posting on the topic several years ago.
Also,
The Bigfoot post was because it was not just in the news again, but
specifically in the San Antonio news. I was just suggesting that for the
hoax to even be legitimate, that Bigfoot had to have been hiding in a Bexar
County cave. I had zero idea that it would start a bear discussion, but
that turned out to be interesting, at least to me.
I will not mention Facebook or Bigfoot again.
David Locklear
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Two of the Facebook pages that I criticized the most were pages that I
created and mis-manage. I should have pointed that out.
David Locklear
--- End Message ---
