Cave map questions

[pipewrench]

Went caving for the first time last weekend at Howards Waterfall, after looking at the map I have some questions.
1)There are a few places on the map that say ''register''. One is shortly after the sand crawl and another is before a large fork leading up to''the bypass''....What exactly does this mean?
2) What do the numbers with circles around them mean?

These are probably very elementary questions, just totally new to it! Any help would be much appreciated

[trogman]

Hi, and welcome to the world of caving! A "register" is a canister of some kind that is posted in the cave to allow people to say "I was here," without defacing the cave with graffiti. It is usually a PVC tube chained to the wall, and if you can get the darn things open, they are usually full of soggy papers with a bunch of signatures and their witty comments. Sometimes the registers are difficult to locate, and sometimes they are removed for whatever reason.
The circles with the numbers indicate ceiling heights, generally in feet.
Here is a website that shows the commonly used cave map symbols:
http://www.carto.net/neumann/caving/cave-symbols/uis_signatures_english.pdf

Trogman

[pipewrench]

That clears up a lot, thanks for the link as well. Now its time to get with my buddies and plan our return!