Fauna Subterranece. 135 



long-known cave-animal the Proteus, the eyes, if not altogether 

 wanting, are yet so little developed, being concealed under the 

 skin, that beyond the mere perception of light, they must be in- 

 capable of receiving any impression of images by means of those 

 organs. It is easy to perceive the connexion which exists be- 

 tween the want of light in the caverns, and the want of organs in 

 their inhabitants by means of which alone light can affect the 

 senses. So long as one form only was known to exist there, in- 

 habiting, moreover, a running stream in the cave, and therefore 

 not exclusively doomed to darkness, this blindness was viewed 

 simply as an exceptional phenomenon, of which there were analo- 

 gous instances. But on becoming acquainted with other occu- 

 pants of those caves, not only blind, but in their structure belonging 

 to peculiar forms (genera), the idea arose, that the three animals 

 mentioned, stood related to each other as links of one chain ; in 

 other words, they seemed to exhibit themselves as representatives 

 of a possibly numerous, generically consistent, subterranean 

 Fauna, whose common characteristic consists in blindness. On 

 the other hand, fresh researches, made by that meritorious col- 

 lector Ferdinand Schmidt of Schischka, near Laybach, to whom 

 we likewise owe the discovery of the Anophthalmus, proved that 

 there were some few other animals in those caves not materially 

 different from the usual forms. Erichson, in his Monograph of the 

 Family of Staphyl'midce, has described a new species of Homalota 

 under the specific name of spelcea, closely allied to H. elongatula, 

 Grav., so common all over Europe, and has quoted it as an in- 

 habitant of the cave at Adelsberg.* A species of Carabidce, 

 communicated to collections by Schmidt under the name of Pris- 

 tonychus Schreibersii,-f seems to occur only in the Stalactitic caves 

 of Carniola. It deserves to be noticed, that these two animals 

 differ from their allied species by their strikingly minute eyes. 



New prospects were further opened in consequence of commu- 

 nications from quite a different quarter. Migratory Indians had 

 long ago, and adventurers and new colonists more recently, visited 

 the immense Kentucky cave, ramified for miles, and known at pre- 

 sent under the name of the Mammoth cave. At a distance of 

 about a mile (Danish)J from the entrance to the cave, a consider- 



* Genera et Species Staphylinorum, p. 107, n. 51. 



f I take this species to be Pristonychus elegaiis, Dej. (Species General des 

 Coleopteres, Tom. iii. p. 59, n. 17.) Dejean got possession of the specimen de- 

 scribed by him during his journey in Carniola, without knowing the real habitat 

 of the insect. 



$ Equal to about four English miles. — N. W. 



