Grotte de Saint Jammes 1

Set of superimposed and interlaced conduits. Cavity with two openings. Through the upper entrance, one enters by a drop of a few meters into a conduit cut perpendicularly by a gallery (on the north-northeast wall). This passage emerges after a few meters at the ceiling of another conduit oriented southwest–northeast. To the southwest, a small chamber (salle Thierry Gomiz) is found after a few meters. To the north-northeast of the chamber, a small opening located about 1.50 m above the floor allows one to reach the lower entrance of the cave. Toward the southwest of the chamber, several diverticula are blocked by clay and gravel.

The gallery continues, at the bottom of the vertical, as a small network toward the east announced by a water trace of medium importance. According to observations and topographic reading, the Saint Jammes cave would have formed thanks to a water flow coming from the neighboring schist terrains located to the south: at the schist-limestone contact, numerous sinkholes must have existed long ago near this cavity and, penetrating the massif, could have built small underground networks of which the Saint Jammes cave is the testimony (see also the grotte de la Crête du Coq). The diverticula located south of the cave played the role of collector and allowed the creation of this small underground complex. Nowadays, the same phenomenon is observed near la Métairie Haute, where a stream sinks at the contact, causing deep collapses near the ruined walls (genesis of an underground network still inaccessible).

Bibliography: Balayé J-C. 1952; Calvet J-P. 1977; Père Pierre Marie 1963; Père-Pierre Marie 1964-1965; Tarisse A. et Sras 1965-1966.