326 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



I took six specimens. I took one small specimen, but my guide let it 

 escape before I had an opportunity to narrowly examine it. They 

 were rare, and were seen in only one place. They had never been 

 observed by the natives in any of the caves. 



The parent crab of the cave form is apparently no better adapted 

 to and does not avoid the sunlight any more than any other fresh- 

 water Brazilian crab. I caught this species of crab along with two 

 others and three species of fishes in the entrance of another cave, but 

 they were not beyond the reach of direct sunlight. 



I cannot explain the origin of Typhlobagrns kronci and of these 

 blind crabs in any other way than through accident. The ancestors of 

 both these forms are known, and are living on the outside of the caves. 



I have entered many caves in Cuba, the United States, and in 

 Brazil, and I think that Lankester's view of cave-life has more to sup- 

 port it in nature than the view expressed by Dr. Eigenmann in his 

 book on cave vertebrates. On page 12 Eigenmann states that in 

 view of the fact that six or seven of the eight known Amblyopsidcc 

 are cave-dwellers and only one other species of the numerous North 

 American fishes lives in caves, the Lankester accident theory is absurd.* 



^ I do not comprehend Mr. Haseinan's mental attitude. He certainly did not 

 read with any care what I published. Concerning Lankester's accident theory 

 of the origin of cave animals, I say (^Cave Vertebrates of America, 1909, 12): , 



"While this is a possible mode of origin of cave-animals, and even of blind ones, 

 it is highly improbable that many, or even any, animals depending, as he supposes, 

 on their eyes, have come to first colonize the cave. Fishes are annually swept into 

 caves, but these are not able to permanently establish themselves in them. To 

 do this the fish must have peculiar habits, special methods of feeding and mating, 

 before an accidental colonization can become successful, and if they are so adapted 

 for a cave existence, they would probably voluntarily colonize the caves, without 

 waiting for an accident. The Amhlyopsidcs are a small family of fishes, eight species 

 being known. They form a very small part of the large fish-fauna about the North 

 American caves. But since six, possibly seven, of the species of this family are 

 cave-dwellers, and only one of the numerous other fishes is permanently at home 

 in the caves, we must suppose, if the theory under consideration is the correct one, 

 that the accident of being carried into the caves happened to six or seven out of 

 the Amhlyopsida, and to only one of all the other fishes about the caves. The 

 absurdity of this supposition is self-evident." Again, on p. 15: " It must also be 

 evident that a fish depending on its sight to procure its food can never become a 

 cave form. Sun-fishes, which are annually carried into the present fully developed 

 caves, belong to this class of fishes. They are always poor when found in the caves, 

 and will never be able to establish themselves in them. On the other hand, 

 there is no reason why fishes detecting the prey either by smell (or taste) or touch 



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