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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



food. . . . This structure also probably explains the facts of its 

 being the sole representative of the fishes in subterranean waters. 

 No doubt many other forms were carried into the caverns since 

 the waters first found their way there, but most of them were like 

 those of our present rivers — deep-water or bottom feeders. Such 



Fig. ^.—Aphyonns gelatiiiosits, l,4oO fathoms, between Australia and New Guinea. 



Fig. 9. — Aphyonus mollis^ 955 fathoms, 24'* 36' north, 84° 5' west. 



Fig. 10. — Tauredophidiiim he.ctli, 1,310 fathoms, Bay of Bengal. 



Fig. W.—Acaiithouus anmitus, 1,050 fathoms, mid I'acifle. off tlic i'hilippines. 



Fig. \i.— Typhloniis nasus, 2,150 to 2,440 fathoms, north of Australia and north of 



Celebes. 

 Fig. 13. — Hephthncara »imi/m, 902 fathoms, Coromandel coast. 

 Fig. \4.—Alexeterion parfaiti, 5,005 metres, North Atlantic. 



fishes would starve in a cave river, where much of the food is car- 

 ried to them on the surface of the stream." 



The observations of Cope are entirely erroneous, as we shall 

 see, and the speculations based on them naturally fall to the ground. 



Dr. Sloan recorded one Amblyopsis which he kept twenty 

 months without food. " Some of them would strike eagerly at 

 any small body thrown in the water near them, rarely missed it, 

 and in a very short time ejected it from their mouths with consid- 

 erable force. I tried to feed them often with bits of meat and fish- 

 wf)rmp, but they retained nothing. On one occasion I missed a 



