DISTRIBUTION OF THE AMBLYOPSID/E. 71 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE AMBLYOPSID/E. 

 Amblyopsis spelaeus De Kay. Plate 5. 



Amlilyopsis spehrus, DE KAY, Nat. Hist. N.V., Reptiles and Fishes, 1842, p. 187, Mammoth Cave, Ky. WYMAN, 

 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., xii, 1843, p. 298; Amer. Jour. Sci. and Arts, xlv, 1843, pp. 04 to 96, Kentucky. 

 THOMPSON, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., xiii, 1844, p. 112. TELKAMPF, Miiller's Arch., 1844, pp. 381 to 

 394, taf. 9. WYMAN, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., iii, 1850, pp. 349 to 357. AGASSIZ, Amer. Jour. Sci. 

 and Arts, xl, 1851, p. 127. WYMAN, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., iv, 1854, p. 395, v, p. 18; Amer. Jour. Sci. and 

 Arts, xvii, 1854, p. 258. POEY, Mem. Cuba, ii, 1853, p. 104. GUNTHER, Cat. Fishes Brit. Mus., vii, 1868, 

 p. 2, Mammoth Cave, Ky. PUTNAM, 1872, Amer. Nat., p. 30, fig., Lansing, Mich. [p. 20], well near Lost 

 River, Ind. Cox, Report Geol. Res. of Ind., Rhodes Cave, near Corydon; Gulf of Lost River. COPE, 

 Report Geol. Res. of Ind., iii and iv, 1871 and 1872 (1872), p. 161, Little Wyandotte Cave, Ind.; Ann. and 

 Mag. Nat. Hist., 1872, Little Wyandotte Cave, Ind. JORDAN, Rept. Geol. Nat. Res. of Ind., vi, 1874 (1875), 

 p. 218, Mammoth Cave. COPE, Rept. Geol. Nat. Res. of Ind., viii, ix, x, 1876, 1877, 1878 (1878), p. 

 483, Little Wyandotte Cave, Ind. JORDAN AND GILBERT, Synopsis, 1883, p. 324. PACKARD, Cave Fauna 

 of N. A.. Mem. Nat. Ac. Sci., 1886, p. 14, Hamer's and Donnelson's caves, Lawrence Co., Ind.; 

 Clifty cave; Elrod's cave (p. 127), 4 miles west of Orleans, Ind. ; Mammoth Cave, Ky. HAY, Rept. Geol. 

 and Nat. Res. of Ind., xix, 1894, p. 234. JORDAN AND EVERMANN, Fishes N. A., 1896, i, p. 706. BLATCH- 

 LEY, Rept. Geol. Nat. Hist. Res. of Ind., xxi, 1896, p. 183, Sibert's well cave, a part of Little Wyandotte 

 Cave, and in caves near Mitchell, Ind. EIGENMANN, Proc. Ind. Ac. Sci., 1897(1898), p. 230; Degeneration of 

 the Eyes of the A mblyopsidtr, its Plans, Processes, and Causes, Proc. Ind. Ac. Sci., 1899, p. 239 (summary). 

 EIGENMANN AND VODER, Ear and Hearing of the Blind Fishes, Proc. Ind. Ac. Sci., 1898 (1899), p. 242. 

 EIGENMANN, Eyes of the Blind Vertebrates of N. A., Archiv f. Entwickelungsmech., viii, 1899, p. 545; Pop. 

 Sci. Mo., !vi, 1900, p. 485; Marine Biological Lectures, 1900, for 1899, p. 113. Cox, Report Bureau of 

 Fisheries, 1904, p. 392, issued 1905. 



Most of the Amblyopsidae are confined to the caves of the Mississippi drainage 

 basin. Amblyopsis spclcciis has the widest distribution. It is recorded from the 

 following places: Mammoth Cave, Kentucky; Rhode's Cave, near Corydon; 

 Lost River and one of its "Gulfs"; Elrod's Cave, Orange County; Little Wyan- 

 dotte, near the southern boundary of Indiana ; Hamer's and Shawnee Caves in 

 Lawrence County, Indiana ; Clifty Caves, near Campellsburg, Washington County. 

 Vague reports of blind fishes have come from near Milford in northern Indiana; 

 from Lansing, Michigan ; and from Hiram, Ohio. None of the alleged specimens 

 from the north had been preserved and none could be secured until recently, when 

 I received a specimen of Amblyopsis from near Hiram, Ohio, with a letter to Prof. 

 H. H. Lane, in substance as follows : 



HIRAM, OHIO, July 7, 1906. 



The fish was brought by a student who resided near the place where it was found. The state- 

 ment made was as follows: The township of Shalersville built a roadway of logs and earth across 

 a swamp, known locally as the Podunk Swamp. The next spring the roadway sank out of sight 

 and in its place there was a canal of reddish brown water. This fish was said to have been caught 

 out of this water. The swamp I have occasionally visited, but have never seen any fish in the 

 water. After the sinking of the road referred to the county rebuilt it at considerable expense only to 

 have it sink out of sight again as before. It has not been touched since and the same stretch of water 

 across it is there to-day. The swamp is one of the kind common to the glacial area and is surrounded 

 by morainic hills. It was no doubt originally a lake and has been converted into a swamp by the 

 growth of vegetable matter. 



This specimen makes the other northern records also probable. 



The specimens from Milford, Indiana, were reported to have been caught 

 under circumstances identical with those reported for the Hiram specimen. 



This species is thus known to be distributed east of the Mississippi, both north 

 and south of the Ohio River, which divides the cave region, and also far north in 

 northern caves or even in glacial swamps. It is probable that it has a very wide 

 distribution in the ground water. It has become quite rare in and about Mam- 

 moth Cave. I have visited this cave several times, also Colossal Cavern, Cedar 

 Sinks, and other caves in Kentucky, but so far have not succeeded in capturing or 

 seeing any specimens south of the Ohio River. 



1 This cave, plate A, has been variously calk-d Shawnee cave, Donnelson's and Donaldson's cave. 



