THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



far over the hot water, and actually pushing their 

 roots into it. 



One of the most interesting discoveries of mod- 

 ern science is that of a subterranean fauna, all the 

 members of which are blind. The transition from 

 the illuminated tenants of this upper world to 

 those darkened subjects of Pluto is indeed facili- 

 tated by certain intermediate conditions. Such is 

 the guacharo, or fruit-eating nightjar, found by 

 Humboldt inhabiting, in immense hosts, a deep, 

 sepulchral cavern in South America, shut out far 

 from the remotest ray of light, coming forth under 

 the cover of night, and invested with superstitious 

 terrors by the natives. Such, too, is the aspalax, 

 or mole of eastern Europe, which habitually lives 

 under ground ; and such is the proteus, a strange 

 sort of salamander found in the lakes of immense 

 caverns in Illyria. They are believed to come 

 from some great central, inaccessible reservoir, 

 where no ray of light has ever penetrated, and 

 whence occasional floods may have forced the in- 

 dividuals that have been discovered.* 



I know not what the condition of the eye may 

 be in the guacharo, but in the mammal and 

 reptile, it exists only in the most rudimentary 

 condition, completely covered by the integu- 

 ments. 



Very recently, however, investigations in various 

 parts of the world have revealed the curious cir- 

 cumstance of somewhat extensive series of ani- 

 mals inhabiting vast and gloomy caves and deep 

 wells, and perfectly deprived even of the vestiges 

 of eyes. Enormous caves in North America, some 

 of which are ten miles in length, and other vast 

 and ramified grottoes in Central Europe, have 

 yielded the chief of these ; but even in this coun- 



* See Davy's "Consolations in Travel." 

 78 



