Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-12-03
LIVING WITHOUT EYES.

American Caverns. There are many animals in the world which pass all their lives in darkness, never seeing ray of light. Every one has heard of the blind fishes of the Mammoth cave. This cave is the big gest of five hundred great caverns in the United States. All of them are in- habited by numerous other sorts of creatures that have no eyes for vision. Literally speaking, there is no such thing as a blind fish, since the most sightless of the fnny tribe possesses visual organs in parliamentary condi- ton, but through want of use the optic ganglia and nerves have broken down and been absorbed.
 Among the animals in these caves where Egyptian darkness ever dwe1ls are blind crayfsh, colorless, which in the water by torchlight look like white phantoms of their outdoor kind. Now and then in such places one comes across common frog emaciated and seemingly discouraged, which has found it's way, how no one knows, to the Tar tarean realms. Also one discovers curi- ous cave rats of the same color as domestic rats, but with longer bodies, like a weasePs, more developed whis- kers, and much bigger ears.
 Of bats there are multitudes in the eaverns, as one might expect, inasmuch as they are creatures of darkness. Countless numbers of them frequent the black hollows of Mammoth and Luray. There were times in the past when these vast caves were the resorts of gigantic beasts, such as the megathe- rum, mylodem, megalonyx and other huge sloth wiped out by the glacial epoch. With the bones are found those of extinct tapirs and peccaries-
 Spiders of several kinds are found in the caves. They are uniformly small, weak, and of sedentary habits. No web do they spin, save few irregular l threads sometimes. What they live upon is rather a puzzle, though it is sup posed that they catch stray mites and other such small fry. Scavengers con- stitute a large part of the population of the caverns. Carnivorous beetles are plentiful, particularly in those places where parties take lunch.
 Such rejectamentao of tourists accumu- late in spots in the Mammoth cave actu- | ally by carloads; but though there is so much moisture. decomposition pro- gresses so slowly that the offal is not offensive. The processes of decay seem | to be accomplished chiefly by few fungi. It is said that meat hung up at | the mouth of one of these caverns re- mains fresh for long time. and it is | surmised that the bacteria which causes things to become putrid are probably rare iu the underground atmosphere. No animals whatever are found in the dry parts of the caves. Dampness, or a certain degree of moisture, seems to be essential to their existence. Under the stones one finds white, eyeless worms. and in the damp soil around about are to be discovered blind beetles in little holes which they excavate and bugs of the thousand-leg sort These thousand leg bugs, which in the upper world de- your fragments of dead leaves and other vegetable debris, sustain life iE the cav erns by feeding upon decayed wood, | fungus growths and bats dung. Kneel- | ing in a beaten path one can see num- bers of them gather about hardened drips of tallow from tourists candles. There are plenty of crickets also.
 So far as the insects of the caves are concerned the loss of sight which they gradually undergo is sufficiently well understood. The first step is a decrease | ln the mum per or the 1aceCS Whlch make up the compound eyes, with cores bonding diminishment of the lenses and retine. After four or five generations the eyes become useless. It would be most interesting to breed these or other blind creatures of the caves in the light so as to find out if they would get theii sight back. In all animals, including man, it is found that nature tries tc compensate for loss of vision by increas ing the power of the sense of touch Thus the antenne of cave insects growl remarkably long, It is very curious tt find that nothing in their behavior sug gests the fact that they are blind. The.
 walk, run, stop, explore the ground and try to escape from the grasp O the bug hunter just as if they resll. saw. The light of candle startle them as much as if they perceived i visually.
 It is remarkable fact, proving taa the ancestors of these creatures coul' see, that in the embryo stage of thei existence they have eyes well devel oped.-N. Y. Telegram.