Eurter — Herpetology of Missouri. 93 



captured on the rocky walls of the Cave about 600 feet 

 from the entrance. This cave is in places not over two 

 feet wide, in others several times that, and extends into 

 the hill about a quarter of a mile. Although many of our 

 salamanders are known to inhabit caves, this seems to be 

 the only one, which, like some of the other animals living 

 exclusively in caves, has become blind, or nearly so. 



In May, 1906, I visited Marble Cave, where Dr. E. D. 

 Cope and Dr. Eigenmann had previously found this sala- 

 mander. Marble Cave opens at the bottom of a large sink- 

 hole about 50 feet deep, with only a small entrance. De- 

 scending a ladder for about 30 feet, we reached the top of 

 a large heap of debris, washed in from the sink-hole. 

 After going down this hill we are in an immense chamber, 

 200 feet in diameter and about 160 feet high, carved out 

 by the action of water. At a remote corner of this grand 

 hall is a short tunnel. Descending through a deep abyss 

 and under a little waterfall we came to the deepest part 

 of the cave — a veritable mud hole. After a hard climb up 

 this steep muddy clay bank, another horizontal gallery was 

 encountered, where we crawled along on hands and knees. 

 This gallery was comparatively dry, with the exception 

 of a small stream flowing toward the mud hole. Crawling 

 along about 400 feet, we reached a narrow crevice high 

 enough to stand up in. Up to this time we had seen no 

 signs of life, and I had about given up hope of finding this 

 salamander. We now saw in front of us a shelf of rock 

 along which we dragged ourselves. This gallery was very 

 wet, all covered with clay. Here at last we came upon our 

 long coveted prize. After crawling along for another 400 

 feet, during which time we had collected nine adult speci- 

 mens, we concluded to turn back. To make better progress 

 we retraced our steps along the stream. We collected 

 eleven more, partly from the sides of the walls, where they 

 were clinging, and from the water. It took us an hour 

 to reach the bottom of the ladder, which would lead us to 

 the surface and to daylight. 



I spent several days in the neighborhood, and, while 



