GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE OF BLIND FISH. 
43 
clotted outline in fig. 1 e is quite large when compared with that of 
a Leiiciscns of about the same dimensions as the blind-fish here 
described.” — \fxMA.ii{^SilUman'’sJoiLrncd^ Vol. 17, 7 ^. 259, 1854. 
The Amblyoj^sis spelmus undoubtedly has quite an extensive 
distribution, probably existing in all the subterranean rivers that 
flow through the great limestone region underlying the Carbonif- 
erous rocks in the central portion of the United States. Prof. 
Cope obtained specimens from the Wyandotte Cave and from wells 
in its vicinity, and in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at 
Cambridge there is a specimen labelled “from a well near Lost 
River, Orange Co., Inch,” which, with those from the Wyandotte 
Cave, is conclusive evidence of its being found on the northern 
side of the Ohio* as well as on the southern, in the rivers of the 
Mammoth Cave. I have been able to examine a number of speci- 
mens from the Mammoth Cave, and have carefully compared with 
them the one from the well in Orange Co., Inch, and find that the 
specific characters are remarkably constant. 
In 1859 f Dr. Girard described a blind fish, received by the 
Smithsonian Institution from J. E. Yonnglove, Esq., wdio obtained 
it “from a well near Bowling Green, Ky.” The general appear- 
ance of this fish, which was only one and a half inches in length, 
was that of AmUyopsis spelmus^ but it differed from that species 
in several characters, especially by the absence of ventral fins. 
Dr. Girard therefore referred the fish to a distinct genus under the 
name of Typhlichthysl subterraneus. Dr. Gunther § considers this 
fish a variety of Amblyopsis spelwus and records the specimen in 
the British Museum “from the Mammoth Cave,” as “half-grown.” [| 
By the kindness of Prof. Agassiz, I have been enabled to exam- 
ine nine specimens of blind fish ivithout ventral s^ in the Museum of 
Comparative Zoology. Seven of these were collected in the Mam- 
moth Cave by Mr. Alpheus Hyatt in September, 1859. One was 
from Monlton, Lawu’ence County, Alabama, presented by Mr. 
Thomas Peters ; and another from Lebanon, Wilson Co., Tennes- 
see ; presented by Mr. J. M. Safford. It is not stated whether 
^ I have also been informed by Mr. Holmes of Lansing, Mich., that blind fishes have 
been drawn out of wells in Michigan, 
t Proceedings Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliilad., p. 63. 
J Blind fish. 
§ Catalogue of Fishes in the British Museum, Vol. 7, p. 2, 1868. 
11 The largest specimen I have seen of Typhlichthys is one and seventeen-twentieths 
inches in length, and the smallest Amblyopsis one and eighteen-twentieths inches. 
