THE MAMMOTH CAVES. 387 



that the assumptions of Dr Kock, in regard to the coeval 

 life of man and mastodon, are successfully disposed of, 

 and that, however curious his research, and clever 

 the inferences he derived from it, he has thrown no new 

 light on the mighty mysteries of the dead world. 



Having thus taken a hasty view of the wonders of 

 buried worlds, as illustrated in the United States, or of 

 many overwhelming floods, I now approach that, to me, 

 most curious and striking fact, the existence in its pre 

 sent lightless world of The Eyeless Fish. That it has 

 its world of waters to itself, or in conjunction, perhaps, 

 with other blind things, there can be no sort of doubt ; 

 but how large or how small the world is whither it 

 tends, or what becomes of it has not yet been revealed 

 to the investigations of man. The stream where these 

 eyeless fish are (for there is no mark of their ever having 

 had an eye) rises in the pitchy darkness of the subter 

 ranean mammoth caves, and having run on the cavern 

 floors for a certain distance, the waters, ere they see the 

 light again, bury themselves in the bowels of the earth, 

 and go we know not whither ! I had not time at my dis 

 posal to pay these caves a visit, but I learned all I 

 could in regard to them, and brought home a speci 

 men which I obtained through the kindness of 

 Dr Pope. To me there is a lesson in this eye 

 less fish which, in the most perfect way, and in 

 regard to the meanest creature, proves the wise, all- 

 knowing, and providential hand of the Creator, for here 

 we have so legible a fact, that all who run may read, 

 that an Omnipotent Being ruled that there should live a 

 creature who, never aware of light, should not need the 

 orbs to know the loss of the great luminary of day, 

 but should for life remain utterly blind. The doctrine 



