QUtLR -FISH' 



I have often been asked if there is any particular group of 

 animals that might in any way typify this province, in view 

 of the obvious fact that all creatures normally seen there seem 

 to be equally typical and even better known in one or more of 

 the surrounding provinces. From the point of view of the 

 naturalist, I would suggest that it is the denizens of the fresh 

 waters that are here most outstanding Apart from the game fish 

 such as trout, bass, and sunfish. freshwater fish as a whole do 

 not seem to offer the nonspecialist mudi novelty or excitement. 

 However, if a visitor goes to the aquarium in the Toledo Zoo. 

 even if he is a Midwesterner he will gel a surprise: and even if 

 he is not a fisherman he will find himself spending much more 

 lime than he expected staring at the really fabulous-looking in- 

 habitants of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and its tributaries 

 that are exhibited there. There is one fish with an elongated 

 spoon for a mouth that defies description, known as the paddle- 

 fish (Polyodon spathula) or the spoonbill, which most people 

 don't even know exists, let alone in our own midst. Tlien, in the 

 mountain streams of this area and particularly of the Interior 

 Highlands, dwell those enormous, sacklike salamandrids called 

 Hellbenders, a type of animal otherwise known only from 

 eastern Asia; while in the weed-covered ponds and ditches of 

 the lowlands, there are huge populations of the almost equally 

 preposterous-looking Mud Puppies, with paddle tails and plumose 

 external gills that look like feathers. Then there are also the 

 Sirens, snake- or eel-shaped creatures of the waters with a single 

 tiny pair of limbs up forward. Frogs are also extremely promi- 

 nent in this country, and there are a plethora of tortoises and 

 turtles. This is most notably the country of fresh-water animals. 



WORLDS BENEATH US 



It is water, too. that has brought into existence another out- 

 standing feature of this province. This is caves. Mudi of the sur- 

 face of the Interior Highlands, the Piedmont, and other areas 

 are covered with limestone strata. These rocks are soluble in 

 acid waters such as rain (which contains carbonic acid derived 

 from the carbon dioxide in the air) or waters filtered through 

 plant roots that gather humic acid. 



A cave is basically just a hole in some otherwise more or less 

 solid material. Yet a cave is like a living entity, although actually 

 a purely negative one. It is born, it grows, it has a mature life 

 and maybe a long old age. but ultimately it dies. However, 

 unlike an animal, any one of these phases may be arrested for 

 any length of time; and growth, maturity, and decline may take 

 place not just once but many times. Short of complete dissolu- 

 tion, erosion, or other form of mechanical transportation of the 

 medium in which the cave exists, it appears to be virtually 

 immortal. It can never be filled up with the exact material in 

 which it is formed, but it can collapse under extreme pressure 

 during earth movements; and then, if it does not contain any 

 extraneous material, it may be totally obliterated by rode flow. 

 Otherwise all that can happen is that it may fill up completely 

 with some deposit and then be buried. In this case it becomes a 

 fossil cave. Fissures and veins that are completely filled in 

 abound, and most of these seem to have been filled as they grew, 

 solution and deposition taking place together 



Stalactites and stalagmites in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. 

 Such structures result by accretion from dripping water 



Some limestones, notably some of those in this province are 

 just about as ancient as any sedimentary rocks can be. having 

 been laid down under a sea in what is called the Cambrian Age. 

 whidi is estimated to have started about 550.000.000 years ago 

 Now, unless surface waters are completely acid-free, caves stan 

 forming in limestone immediately it is raised out of the sail sea 

 where it originates. There is a vague theory that prior to the 

 evolution of land plants there was no carbon dioxide m the 

 atmosphere, and if this is so. caves first started in Devonian 

 times. .3.50.000.000 years ago. and some from that age are (as 

 geologists can demonstrate) still in existence— and as caves 



Caves have a fascination all their own, and that which is i<> 

 be seen in them is very worth while, for most caves have great 

 natural beauty. The formations that have grown in them over 

 the ages are of wide variety, from towering columns measured 

 in hundreds of feet to tiny flower-shaped clusters of crystals and 

 beautiful little pearl-like concretions found in limpid pools. The 

 floors of caves also often yield bones and other animal remains, 

 and the dejecta of primitive and early man. So far the caves of 

 this continent have not given up anything like the treasures of 

 this nature that have those of the other continents, but this does 

 not mean that there are not important discoveries of this nature 

 still to be made. No two caves are alike, so that you can go on 

 visiting new ones for a lifetime and still find something novel in 

 almost all of them. It is in this province, however, that one may 

 probably best be initiated into this subterranean world; and 

 there is probably no better place to start than Mammoth Cave 

 in Kentucky. Well over 150 miles of passages have been mapped 

 in this vast complex of corridors, rooms, deep pits, crawlways. 

 and a great variety of other-shaped holes. Yet anyone may walk 

 through many parts of it in perfect safety today and see examples 

 of many of the principal things to be found underground. 



In 1952 a man was drilling a well in Alabama and had gone 

 down just over a quarter of a mile, when, to his utmost surprise, 

 up came a five-inch, blind, colorless salamander. Now you 

 cannot have any animal living in solid rock, so there must have 

 been water down there. Further, you cannot have just one 

 animal (even of a kind that has been until then entirely unknown 

 and unsuspected) existing anywhere: it must have had parents, 

 have a mate, and produce youngsters. Also, all animals must 

 eat. and as there cannot be any plants in the total absence of 

 light — apart from parasitic or saprophytic ones — these salaman- 

 ders must subsist for the most part on other animals. But those 

 in turn must eat too. and we would like to know where their 

 food comes from. It must be washed down from above: but in 

 the immediate area of this first discovery, no caves are known. 

 The only other suggestion is that there are down there certain 

 specialized bacteria that actually eat rock, such as those that 

 cause the "rotting" of old buildings like Notre Dame Cathedral 

 in Paris. 



Several kinds of salamanders and also fish have now been 

 brought up from deep well drillings all over a huge area from 

 western Texas to the Atlantic coast. Their distribution has been 

 plotted, and it has been found that when laid out on a map. the 

 distribution of each species forms a pattern like a river system. 

 Further, these networks overlay each other but without any 

 apparent reference to each other, and they are found to be at 

 different levels; so that, while the waters of all of them must 

 presumably come down from above and must be confluent, the 

 animals of one level cannot get into the next below or above. 

 These weird creatures must have been evolved down there from 

 primitive surface-living species that somehow penetrated into 

 the very bowels of the earth eons ago. and they must have been 

 there ever since despite great movements of the earths crust. 



