FROGS AND TOADS. 
281 
caverns in the world is the grotto of the Magdalene, near 
Adelsburg, in the duchy of Caruiola. The whole of that 
region consists of bold, craggy rocks and mountains of 
limestone formation, perforated with spacious branching 
caverns, in whose awful recesses sleep the sluggish waters 
of vast subterranean lakes, whence many rivers take their 
origin. In these dreary reservoirs, over which a gleam 
of light has never played, savo when the torch of the in- 
quisitive traveller is flashed back from the unruffled sur- 
face, are found many Protei, swimming through the waters 
or burrowing in the mud which is precipitated by them. 
Specimens have been thrown up by water from a sub- 
terraneous cavity at Sittich, about thirty miles distant 
from the grotto of the Magdalene ; and the species is said 
to exist in the caves of Sicily. 
Sir Humphry Davy, in his “ Consolations in Travel,” 
has graphically described the appearance, habits, and 
localities, of this singular animal. We have room but for 
the following extract, which bears on the point already in- 
sisted on in the preceding notes — the intermediate posi- 
tion of the creature between Fishes and Reptiles : — 
“ At first view you might suppose this animal to be a 
lizard, but it has the motions of a fish. Its head, and the 
lower part of its body, and its tail, bear a strong resem- 
blance to those of the Eel; but it has no fins, and its curious 
branchial organs are not like the gills of fishes ; they form 
a singular vascular structure, as you see, almost like a 
crest round the throat, which may bo removed without 
occasioning the death of the animal, which is likewise 
furnished with lungs. With this double apparatus for 
supplying air to the blood, it can live either below or 
