106 
MEMOIRS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
Vertebrata. 
Class FISHES. 
Amblyopsis spelceus De Kay. Caves and wells, Kentucky and Indiana. 
Typhlichthys subterraneus Girard. Subterranean streams in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. 
Lucifuga subterraneus Poey. Caves in Cuba. 
Stygieola dentata (Poey). Caves in Cuba. 
Umbra crameri. In subterranean lakes in Austria (Schmarda, Geogr. der Thiere, i, 13). 
Gronias nigrilabris Cope. Eyes rudimental; “no lens” (Cope). Conestoga River, Lancaster county, Penn¬ 
sylvania. 
Pimelodus cyclopium Humboldt. South America. Eyes more or less rudimentary. 
Helogenes. South America. 
Agoniosus and other genera. South America. 
Eutroplus congensis. Africa. 
Ailia, Shilbichthys, Bagroides, and other genera in Asia (Putnam). (See Semper, p. 420.) 
Blind-fishes are said to exist in an artesian well in California by Hon. J. D. Cat on (Amer. Naturalist, xix, 
811, 1885), who kindly sent me the following correspondence in regard to the matter. 
Chicago, July 12, 1886. 
Dear Sir: About a year ago I wrote you about eyeless fish said to have been thrown out of an artesian well at 
Santa Clara College, near San Josd, California. I wrote to the officers of the college for information, but could o-et 
no answer. When in San Francisco last spring I stated the matter to my friend II. B. Williams, who told me that he 
had a friend, J. T. Doyle, who was a great friend and patron of the college, who would learn all about it. So I wrote 
a letter to Mr. Williams, which he handed or sent to Mr. Doyle. I inclose you Mr. Doyle’s answer, which I think is 
of some interest, not only on account of the fish but on account of the emission of the sawdust, which must have 
come from the red-wood saw-mills, 12 miles away, in the mountain. 
The figure which Mr. Doyle gave of the sightless fish may not be of value, but his description may have its 
interest. At any rate I send it so that you may use the matter as you may think proper. 
I received several other letters from Mr. Williams, in one of which he informed me that he had heard from 
another source that when the Santa Clara well was first sunk a few small sightless fishes were thrown out an inch or 
an inch and a quarter long; that Mr. Doyle had failed to get a response from the college authorities, but that he 
would persevere till he did get an answer; but after two months’ waiting I concluded to send you this little install¬ 
ment. 
Very truly, yours, 
J. D. Caton. 
Prof. A. S. Packard, Jr. 
San Francisco, April 30, 1886. 
My Dear Sir: It is always a pleasure to do any service to you. I forward your letter and that of Judo-e Caton 
to the officers of the college. a 
I have some little knowledge of the matter inquired about myself. One of the fish in question was brought to 
me some years since, which had flowed from a well of my brother, near Menlo Park. The well, if I remember cor¬ 
rectly, had ceased to flow as abundantly as before, and something was put down to stir up the bottom of it; whatever 
the provocation, the result was that the well vomited up an excessive quantity of red-wood sawdust, and shortly 
after the fish in question was taken from it and brought to me in a bottle. It was about two and one-quarter inches 
long by two-fifths of an inch wide, silvery belly, and reddish-gold back. My impression is that the place where eyes 
should be was well marked but the eye closed. The savans to whom it was shown whose knowledge of such subjects 
was confined, like my own, to what might be learned from the Alta California and the fish market, voted that the 
red-wood sawdust came from a saw-mill up in the coast range, of which there were three or four within 12 or 15 miles, 
and that the fish was of some sort of underground kind which had no immediate need of eyes, like those found in the 
Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. 
As to a flow of them from a well in Santa Clara College, I never heard of such, and think if they had appeared 
there in any quantity we should have heard of them. The water in all the wells in the valley contains a good deal 
of salts of soda and magnesia, but are not considered mineral waters; they are merely hard (for washing), and some 
find them also hard to drink, without qualification. 
Yours, truly, 
John T. Doyle. 
H. B. Williams, Esq. 
