80 Miscellaneous. 



the three found in the Mammoth Cave, being known at present only 

 from the rice-ditches of the low coast of South Carolina. 



Second, the Lernaean parasite is much more common on marine 

 fishes than on strictly fluviatile species, and is more decidedly a 

 marine than a freshwater form. These facts may therefore be 

 taken as at least indicating the probability of the early origin of 

 some part of the great cave-system of the region of the Ohio val- 

 ley ; and while there may be nothing in the present structure of the 

 caves to indicate their having been formed in part while in contact 

 with salt water, the supposed erosion of the limestone and the 

 modification of the early formed chambers by later action should 

 be carefully considered before it can be denied that the caves 

 were, in some slight part, for a time supplied with marine life. 

 Until a specimen of ChoJog aster, or some other member of the 

 family, has been obtained in the external waters of the Ohio valley, 

 it is hardly logical to regard the family to which the blind fishes 

 belong as one originally distributed in the rivers of the Ohio valley, 

 and afterward becoming exterminated in the rivers and only existing 

 in two such widely different localities as the coast of South Carolina 

 and the subterranean streams of the south-western States. That 

 marine forms of life are found in our freshwater lakes and rivers is 

 known to be the case. The specimen of a shrimp exhibited was 

 secured in the Green River, near one of the outlets of the Mammoth 

 Cave. The fact that in some of the waters of Florida fishes 

 once marine are now confined to freshwater lakes of comparatively 

 recent formation, and that in the St. John's river, and others of 

 that State, many marine and freshwater species are found associated, 

 are evidence of the change that may take place in the habits of 

 some marine animals, while a recent announcement of the Gobiosoma 

 found in the Ohio river* is another instance of a marine fish living 

 in fresh waters. — Sittiman's American Journal, May 1875. 



Note on Neobakena marginataf. 



In the 'Annals ' for October last (p. 316) an awkward mistake 

 has crept into the abstract from one of my letters to Dr. Gray, 

 published by him as a paragraph. It is the skull of the calf of 

 Neobalama maryinata that is 2 feet 3 inches in total length, not the 

 calf itself. 



Wellington, New Zealand, James Hector. 



January 19, 1875. 



* Putnam, " Notice of Gobiosoma ?no!estum from the Ohio," Amer. Nat. 

 viii. Feb. 1874. 



t [We are requested by Dr. Hector to state that the above correction 

 would have been made at an earlier date, but for the unfortunate circum- 

 stance that it was enclosed in a letter addressed to Dr. Gray which arrived 

 in England after his death. — Ed.] 



