388 THE EYELESS FISH. 



that, from being in the dark, these fish should gradually 

 have lost their sight, and have blindly bred till custom, 

 assigned by place, should, through the force of inherent pro 

 pagation, have induced no eyes at all, is a mere assumption, 

 and to my mind almost an endeavour to rob Nature of 

 her almighty care. These fish are found only in that 

 dark world of waters to which the light never pene 

 trates; at least it is not within my knowledge that 

 they have been discovered anywhere but in the 

 Mammoth Caves. The fish, on a superficial view, 

 seems to me to be like our gold fish, or certainly 

 of that sort, but of course without their gaudy hues. 

 I believe the one brought home by me is equal to any 

 other ever brought to this country, if not the most 

 perfect of any ; it is with the greatest pleasure that I 

 invite attention to so curious an investigation. 



Adieu, then, to the good city of St Louis and to the 

 State of Missouri. 



Two days' hard frost and snow had rarefied the air and 

 braced the nerves of men who had been suffering from 

 aguish fever, and on a Tuesday morning on or about the 

 14th or 15th of November, I found myself starting from 

 Barnum's Hotel, in an omnibus, a little before seven in 

 the morning. Having taken a breakage-ticket right 

 through from St Louis to New York, for which I paid 

 thirty-one dollars, I boarded the steamboat and proceeded 

 about twenty miles by water up the Missouri, and as we 

 left the city had a very picturesque view of it from the 

 deck. On the entire voyage I saw plenty of ducks and 

 other small wild fowl, and had a very pretty view, as we 

 approached it, of Alton, on the right bank of the river 

 a high bluff promontory, jetting boldly out above the 

 stream. Alton is a considerable town, but, like all the 



