Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-01-20
LIVING WITHOUT EYES.
Blind Fishes and Insects Found In VarIoui
American Caverns.

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 rudimentary 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 dwells
are blind crayfish, 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
its way, how no one knows. to the Tar
tarean realms. Also one discovers Curl
GUS cave rats of the same color az
like a weaseFs, more developed whis-
kers and much bigger ears.
OF bats there are multitudes in the
caverns, 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 s,oth 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
threads sometimes. What they live
upon is rather a puzzle, though it il sup
posed that they catch stray mites and
other such small fry Scavengers con-
stitute large part of the population of
the caverns. Carnivorous beetles are
plentiful, particularly in those places
where parties take lunch.
Such rejectamenta Of tourists accumu-
late in spots in the Mammoth cave actu-
ally by carloads; but though there is
30 much moisture, decomposition pro-
crosses SO slowly that the offal is not
offensive. The processes of decay seem
to be accomplished chiefly by few
fungi 1t is said that meat hung up at
the mouth of one CT these caverns re-
mains fresh for a long time, and it is
surmised that the bacteria which causes
things to become putrid are probably
rare In 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 in the cav
erns by feeding upon decayed wood,
fungus growths and bats dung Kneel-
ing In beaten path one can see num-
bers of them gather about hardened
trips of tallow from tourists candles.
has IntrOe plenty of criclxets also.
'1no 0qqst'as the insects of the caves are
concerned the loss of sight which they
gradually undergo is sufficiently we'll
understood. The first step is decrease
In the number of the facets which make
up the compound eyes, with cores
ponding diminishment of the lenses and
retinm. After four or five generations
the eyes become useless. 1t would be
most interesting to breed these or other
blind creatures of the caves in the light,
90 as to find out If they would get their
sight back. In all animals, including
man, 1t is found that nature tries to
compensate for loss of vision by increas-
ing the power of the sense of touch.
Thus the antennse of cave insects grows
remarkably long. 1t is very curious to
find that nothing in their behavior sug-
gests the fact that they are blind. They
walk, run, stop, explore the ground,
and try to escape from the grasp Of
the bug hunter just as If they really
saw The light OF candle startles
them as much as if they perceived it
usually.
1t is a remarkable fact, proving that
the ancestors of these creatures could
see, that in the embryo stage of their
existence they have eyes we'll devel-
oped. IN. Y. Telegram.