112 On Blind Fish, Cray-fish, and Insects from the Mammoth Cave. 



The cave itself is popularly known from having been described 

 in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal for 1838, vol. vi. p. 234 ; and 

 more recently, at least in this town, from a letter by the Rev. Wm. 

 Murphy, St. Mary's College, Kentucky, published in the Belfast 

 Commercial Chronicle of January 1, 1844, where it occupies two 

 columns, but the source whence it was obtained is not acknow- 

 ledged. The Blind Fish is described in Silliman's American 

 Philosophical Journal for August last*, and the article was re- 

 published verbatim in the ' Annals of Natural History ' for Oc- 

 tober 1843. It is therefore unnecessary to do more than refer to 

 the description, with the exception of a few remarks made by the 

 donor. He obtained these specimens of the fish, the largest of 

 which is 4|^ inches in length, and according to the guide — perhaps 

 not the least interested authority — the largest taken down to that 

 time. The hearing of the fish is very acute, so that it is with great 

 difficulty captured. Being of a whitish yellow, or cream-colour, 

 it is very conspicuous in the water. When taken, and viewed 

 closely, it is somewhat transparent, like china-ware, so that the 

 intestines, &c. can be distinctly seen. Our donor is not aware 

 of the fish having been tried as food : — at the price of a dollar 

 each they are sold at the entrance to the cave. One interesting 

 fact in the economy of the species, unnoticed in the description 

 alluded to, is perhaps new, namely, that it is viviparous. The 

 largest specimen on being captured was placed in water, where it 

 gave birth to nearly twenty young, which swam about for some 

 time, but soon died. These, with the exception of one or two, 

 were carefully preserved, and fifteen of them are now before us : 

 they are each 4 lines in length. 



The Cray-fish and " Crickets" are stated in the letter already 

 noticed to be blind, but this is erroneous. Both species have eyes. 

 Our specimen of the cray-fish wants both the claws, but is other- 

 wise perfect, and agrees with the description of the Astacus Bar- 

 toni, Fabr., given in Milne-Edwards's ^ Histoire des Crustaces,' 

 vol. ii. p. 331. The length there attributed to the species is 3 

 inches : the specimen before us is 2^ inches in length from the 

 point of the rostrum to the extremity of the caudal plates. The 

 A. Bartoni is said to inhabit the river Delaware and other parts 

 of North America. 



Of the Insects, which are doubtless the same as those called 

 " crickets" (though not properly so) in the published letter, se- 

 veral were captured by our donor seven miles from the entrance 

 of the cave — the fish was taken four miles within it. They be- 



* The fish is here stated to correspond " for the most part with the de- 

 scription of the Amhlyopsis spelcsus, described by Dr. Dekay in the ' P'auna 

 of New York,' but in some particulars it differs." Mr. Thompson stated 

 that he had not the opportunity of referring to this work. 



