112 FISHES AND FISHIlfG. 



nerve," (" Lectures on Comparative Anatomy," vol^ 

 , ii. p. 202 ; see also his figure, p. 175.) Eutthe rea- 

 soning of Dr. Wyman inclines one to the helief that 

 Professor Owen's statement is erroneous. Dekay has 

 placed these fish amougst the Siluridee; but Dr. 

 Wyman, who has had great opportunities of judging 

 from dissections and close examination of its osteology 

 and whole anatomical structure, as compared with 

 specimens of Amhlyopsis spelceus which he also dis- 

 sected, says that it belongs to the latter genus. 



But if Providence has been pleas'ed to withhold 

 from these fishes the sense of sight, it is probably 

 compensated by excellence of the sense of smelling 

 and of hearing ; for as before observed, the olfactory 

 organs are particularly well defined, and the auditory 

 apparatus much larger than in any other fish of the 

 same size, and the otolite of the vestibule (one of the 

 bones described, when describing the organ of hear- 

 ing) is very large in proportion to the size of the fish : 

 and it is asserted that the blind fish are acutely sen- 

 sible of sounds, as well as to undulations produced by 

 other causes in the water. 



As plants which in the light grow up a dark green 

 colour, but if allowed to do the same in a dark place 



* Because the voice, or any noise made in a cave, produces 

 vibration of the substance of wliich the cavity is formed, and 

 that vibration is communicated to the water. 



