38 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the river Styx, which is at the lowest level 

 of the cave and about three miles from the 

 entrance by the route usually taken. There 

 is however another route, called the Cork- 

 screw, which cuts off two and a half miles 

 of this distance, but is a very narrow and 

 difficult passage. It begins in the upper 

 level near the Rotunda, and sinks abruptly 

 to the deepest gallery of the cave. The 

 first part of the descent, through an almost 

 vertical well, is made on ladders, and the 

 remainder by a steep declivity over rough 

 rocks. A large party of visitors was going 

 by the long route to the end of the cave, 

 and a guide was to be sent in advance 

 with a basket of provisions. N. and I de- 

 cided to take advantage of this arrange- 

 ment, and following the guide " Pete " 

 down the Corkscrew, after a short, but 

 somewhat exciting descent, we found our- 

 selves in the long avenue leading to the 

 river, which we reached an hour in ad- 

 vance of the main party. 



With this avenue the water system of 

 the cave communicates at several points, 

 forming pools known as Lake Lethe, the 

 River Styx, and similar Plutonic appella- 

 tions. The floor of the avenue is of fine 

 sand, and at high tide the water rises from 

 forty to fifty feet, filling it nearly to the 

 roof. When the Green River rises above 

 a certain height a submarine connection is 

 established between its waters and those 

 of the so-called river of the cave, which 

 then rises and falls with the water outside. 

 At the time of our visit the flood was at 

 its usual summer ebb, and these stygian 

 pools lay in motionless tranquility, their 

 crystal depths undimmed, and their glassy 

 surfaces unruffled by current or eddy. 



Arrived at the point where the River 

 Styx crosses the gallery, we found Charon's 

 boat drawn up upon the sand, and deposit- 

 ing our burdens, we began a search along 

 shore for blind fish and crawfish. The 

 forms of several were soon seen floating like 

 white phantoms in the almost invisible 

 water, and we captured with an insect net 

 several small specimens of both species of 

 blind fish, Amblyopsis and Typ/ilichthys, 

 which resemble each other closely, but 



want the ventral fin in the latter genus. 

 We took also good specimens of the cave 

 crawfish [Cajnbarus pellucidus Tellk.), and 

 in addition a gigantic female of Cambarus 

 Bartonii, the common crawfish of the 

 Green River, but which has quite often 

 been found in the cave waters. A very 

 unexpected find however was a common 

 frog. He was res^ng upon the sand, not 

 far from the water, and was somewhat 

 emaciated, and apparently much discour- 

 aged. A fish with large and perfect eyes, 

 probably a darter, showed itself in one of 

 the large pools. It remained for some 

 time motionless at the surface of the water, 

 within easy reach, but " Pete " missed it 

 with the net, and it vanished in a twink- 

 ling, not to appear again. A single ^«^/i- 

 thalmus, found running on the sand, was 

 the only insect, except cfickets, seen here. 

 When therefore the party arrived we de- 

 cided to accompany them farther. We em- 

 barked with them in one of the boats, and 

 leaving the gallery on our left, pushed under 

 a low, wide arch, and floated for half a 

 mile in an aqueduct, like a mammoth sewer, 

 over water thirty or forty feet deep. The 

 guides, standing up in the bows, propelled 

 the boats by pushing with their paddles 

 against the low roof. At its end, the river 

 sinks beneath the wall of rock, but another 

 great gallery opens here at the side, and 

 another system of halls and avenues begins, 

 the farthest point of which, and the end of 

 the " long route " is still a walk of six miles 

 from the river. We landed and hurried on 

 before, three miles farther to Washington's 

 Hall, a chamber of the largest size, and for 

 many years the lunching place of tourists. 

 The floor of the hall is of white gypsum 

 sand strewn with fragments of the same 

 material. The larger masses of gypsum 

 afford convenient seats and tables for pic- 

 nickers, and are strewn about with chicken 

 bones and bits of food. The accumulation 

 of such rejectamenta is very great, to be 

 reckoned perhaps by the cart-load, yet not- 

 withstanding the presence of so much offal, 

 kept perpetually moist by contact with the 

 gypsum sand, not the slightest taint is per- 

 ceptible in the air of the chamber, only 



