ii6 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Fal 



Creatures without Eyes. 



Men who have no intellectual perception and men who have 

 no spiritual perception may be met with. Nature produces 

 creatures without eyes sometimes. In the grotto of the Mada- 

 lena at Adelsburg, in Illyria, many hundred feet below the 

 surface are seen creatures like slender fish moving in the mud 

 below the water. These are the protei : the animal is of a 

 fleshy whiteness, and transparent in its natural state, but when 

 exposed to light its skin gradually becomes of a darker colour, 

 and at last gains an olive tint. Being abundantly furnished 

 with teeth, it is inferred that the animal is one of prey, yet in 

 its confined state it has never been known to eat, and it has 

 been kept alive for many years by occasionally changing the 

 water in which it was placed. In dry seasons the protei are 

 very seldom seen in the lake of the Madalena, but after great 

 rains they are often abundant. Their natural residence is an 

 extensive subterraneous lake, from which in great floods they are 

 sometimes forced through the crevices of the rocks into the place 

 where they are found. These singular creatures have no ougans 

 of vision, but in their place are two small dots which occupy 

 the position of eyes. It has not been ascertained that they 

 have any power of perception. The entire absence of colour, 

 and the imperfect development of their organs in at least their 

 intermediate condition, between those of a reptile and a fish, 

 seem to be the result of the absence of light. SA. 



The Tempting Instinct of the Fallen. 



One of the most remarkable examples of the instinct to 

 tempt others into a lower condition is shown in the method by 

 which the tame female elephant is trained to catch wild males. 

 The females appear, from the accounts which we have of their 

 proceedings in Sir Stamford Baffles' s Life, and in " Williamson's 

 Sports," to manifest a desire to bring the males, which the 

 hunters point out to them, into the same condition in which 

 they are themselves. They will inveigle any one to which 

 their attention is directed with the most artful and curious 

 wiles ; they will lead him about so as to divert his attention 



