THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



world. We throw a light on the roof of the 

 gi'otto, on the damp cold wall of this monstrous 

 stone sarcophagus in which the myriads of sun- 

 seeking animals of the chalk ocean and giant 

 reptiles sleep. Among the stalactites there 

 moves a young and actual life. There are ani- 

 mals here again that have wandered into fixed 

 abodes, a race of strange cave animals. Some- 

 thing crawls up the glittering chalk tip of the 

 stalactite which comes down to us like a great 

 root that has bored itself through the roof. It 

 moves round like a ball-shaped, stiffened, red, 

 glittering drop of wax. Long thin legs and 

 great feelers go out spider- like in a star around 

 it. It is leptoderus, the blind beetle of the Ad- 

 elsberg grotto. Six thousand feet from the en- 

 trance it flits around on the stalagmites and stal- 

 actites, which are one hundred and twenty-five 

 feet long in the so-called Calvary mountain. It 

 is wingless and eyeless. What should it do with 

 eyes in this eternal night .^ Nevertheless, it flits 

 like lightning away from the glow of our lan- 

 terns. Through some one of its senses it is able 

 to quickly perceive our approach, although it 

 very certainly can not see us. Perhaps it feels 

 the wave of warmth that comes with us, perhaps 

 it smells us with its fine organs on the tips of 

 its feelers. It must be armed with some such 

 power of perception of a hostile approach in its 

 stygiau darkness, for on the same damp smooth 



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