Blind Fish of the Mammoth Cave. 256 



veral specimens, and satisfied myself, that the peduncle of 

 the eye only exists, but there are no visible facets at its ex- 

 tremity, as in other crawfish. 



Mr Thomson mentions farther Crickets, allied to " Pha- 

 lagopsis longipes," of which Tellkampf says that it occurs 

 throughout the cave. Of Spiders, Dr Tellkampf found two 

 eyeless, small, white species, which he calls " Phalangodes 

 armata" and " Anthrobia monmouthia" — flies, of the genus 

 " Anthomyia" — a minute shrimp, called by him " Triura ca- 

 vernicola," and two blind beetles — " Anophtbalmus Tell- 

 kampfii," of Erichson, and " Adelops hirtus;" of most of which 

 Dr Tellkampf has published a full description and figures, 

 in a subsequent paper, inserted in Erichson' s Archiv, 1844, 

 page 318. 



The infusoria observed in the cave resemble " Monas Kol- 

 poda," '* Monas socialis," and " Bodo intestinalis" — a new 

 Chilomonas, which he calls " Ch. emarginata," and a spe- 

 cies, allied to '* Kolpoda cucuUus." 



As already mentioned, Dekay has referred the blind fish, 

 with doubt, to the family of Siluridse. Dr Tellkampf how- 

 ever establishes for it a distinct family. Dr Storer, in his 

 Synopsis of the Fishes of North America, published in 1846, 

 in the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences, is also of opinion that it should constitute a distinct 

 family, to which he gives the new name of " Hypsseidse," 

 p. 435. From the circumstance of its being viviparous, from 

 the character of its scales, and from the form and structure 

 of its head, I am inclined to consider this fish rather as an 

 aberrant type of my family of Cyprinodonts. 



You ask me to give my opinion, respecting the primitive 

 state of the eyeless animals of the Mammoth Cave. This is 

 one of the most important questions to settle in natural 

 history, and I have, several years ago, proposed a plan for 

 its investigation, which, if well conducted, would lead to as 

 important results as any series of investigations which can 

 be conceived, for it might settle, once for ever, the ques- 

 tion, in what condition and where the animals now living on 

 the earth, were first called into existence. But the investi- 

 gation would involve such long and laborious researches, 



