92 THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 



intestinalis' — a new Chilomonas, which he calls 

 'Ch. emarginata/ and a species allied to ^Kolpoda 

 cucullus.' 



"As already mentioned, Dekay has referred 

 the blind fish, with doubt, to the family of 

 Siluridae Dr. Tellkampf, however, establishes 

 for it a distinct family. Dr. Storer, in his 

 Synopsis of the Fishes of North America, pub- 

 lished in 1846, in the Memoirs of the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences, is also of opinion 

 that it should constitute a distinct family, to 

 which he gives the new name of ' Hypsseidae,' 

 page 435. From the circumstance of its being 

 viviparous, from the character of its scales, and 

 from the form and structure of its head, I am 

 inclined to consider this fish as an aberrant type 

 of my family of Cyprinodonts. 



"You ask me to give my opinion respecting 

 the primitive state of the eyeless animals of the 

 Mammoth Cave. This is one of the most im- 

 portant questions to settle in Natural History, 

 and I have, several years ago, proposed a plan 

 for its investigation, which, if well conducted, 

 would lead to as important results as any series 

 of investigations which can be conceived; for it 

 might settle, once and forever, the question, in 

 what condition and where the animals now 



