90 THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 
nized and respected in scientific circles. In “Sil- 
liman’s Journal” for January, 1851, p. 127, Pro- 
fessor Louis Agassiz, perhaps the most eminent 
living naturalist, especially in the department 
of ichthyology, in reply to a letter of inquiry 
from the senior editor of the “Journal,” remarks, — 
“The blind fish of the Mammoth Cave was 
for the first time described in 1842, in the Zool- 
ogy of New York, by Dr. Dekay, Part 3d, page 
187, under the name of ‘Amblyopsis speleeus,’ 
and referred, with doubt, to the family of ‘Silu- 
ridz,’ on account of a remote resemblance to 
my genus Cetopsis. Dr. J. Wyman has pub- 
lished a more minute description of it, with very 
interesting anatomical details, in vol. xlv. of the 
‘American Journal of Science and Arts,’.1843, . 
page 94, 
“In 1844 Dr. Tellkampf published a more 
extended description, with figures, in ‘ Miiller’s 
Archiv’ for 1844, and mentioned several other 
animals found also in the Cave, among which the 
most interesting is a Crustacean, which he calls 
‘Astacus pellucidus, already mentioned, but not 
described, by Mr. Thompson, President of the 
Natural History Society of Belfast. Both Thomp- 
son and Tellkampf speak of eyes in these spe- 
cies; but they are mistaken. I have examined 
