There should be several blank copies of this New Cave Data sheet in the lever-arch file holding the plastic survey wallets, after the index sheet.
This has fallen out of use in recent years, but is needed because the online form for registering a new cave is complicated and needs some thought, whereas anyone can fill out this paper data sheet immediately.
The Cave Tag Number is the identifier on the aluminium tage (if mounted at the entrance) e.g. 2050-BH-03 if it is the third cave disovered by Dr. Bunsen Honeydew on the 2050 expo. This encodes the year of discovery, two letters, usually the unique initials of one of the discoverers, and a serial number for caves discovered this year by that person.
Note that this identifier must NOT end in a LETTER. It must end in a DIGIT. Only entrance identifiers end in a (lower-case) letter. Cave identifiers must end in a digit.
Usually the paper sheet will be put away in the same plastic wallet as that used for the underground survey notes and sketches of the newly-discovered cave, and the entrance location will be entered as GPS coordinates.
Occasionally, an entrance is discovered during a surface survey, and no underground exploration is done, in which case this data sheet should be put in the same wallet as the surface survey notes.
Anyone setting out on a surface prospecting trip should take a few of these with them and fill them out in the field at the new entrance.
We used to have a Prospecting Form:
