108 Eyeless Animals of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, 



when first caught, though after being kept some time in light, 

 it appeared gradually to attain some power of vision. There 

 are also some insects, " the largest of which is a sort of 

 cricket, with enormously long antennee." " Of spiders Dr 

 Tellkampf found two eyeless, small, white species, which he 

 calls Phalangodes armata and Anthrobia monmouthia ; flies 

 of the genus Anthomia, and two blind beetles, Anophthal- 

 mias Tellkampfii of Erickson, and Adelops hirtus." There 

 are also some infusoria. 



But the most remarkable animals peculiar to the Mam- 

 moth Cave are — a crustacean, Astacus pellucidus, and a 

 small fish, Amblyopsis Spelams. 



These are the species of which specimens are now before 

 the Society, having been sent to me by John Purves, Esq. of 

 Kinaldy, Fifeshire, who visited the Mammoth Cave during 

 the summer of 1850. 



The signal peculiarity of these animals is their want of 

 fully developed organs of vision. Dr Tellkampf and Mr 

 Thomson, president of the National History Society of Bel- 

 fast, who were among the first to notice the animals of the 

 cave, speak of eyes in the Crustacea. Agassiz, on the other 

 hand, asserts that this is a mistake. He says : " I have ex- 

 amined several species, and satisfied myself that the peduncle 

 of the eye only exists, but there are no visible facets at its 

 extremity, as in other craw-fish." * These observations ap- 

 pear to be fully justified by the specimens now submitted to 

 the Society ; for scarcely the faintest trace of an eye can be 

 detected in the two Crustacea. M. Agassiz asserts respect- 

 ing the fish, that it has not even rudimentary eyes, and 

 appears to want even the orbital cavity. — (Agassiz's and 

 Gould's Principles of Zoology.) From the circumstance of 

 its being viviparous, from the character of its scales, and 

 from the forward structure of its head, he considers it an 

 aberrant type of his family of Cyprimodonts. There is also, 

 however, a second species of fish, " not colourless like the 

 first," and having external eyes, but quite blind. Mr Silli- 

 man, moreover, mentions an important fact, that the " larger 

 eyed and coloured craw-fish which are abundant without the 



* Americ m Journal of Science, &c, vol. ix. No. 31. (Reprinted in Jameson's.) 



