The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-04-09
A WONDER AT SAN MARCOS.
A Well That PRODUCES Sightless shrimp
Salamander and Other Animals.

IN, Ir.;.oa c+o+os fish commission has
Inc Clii San Norcos TEXAS. which, to
| a a. e., is the most wonderful well
~; ;ne no ho0 World If was recently sunk i'll
49, nndnr +o ont n SIMPLY of water for the
an onltrraI station which the commits
s;nn 10 establishing at that place. When
shn d 10 reoched y depth of 1S1 feet it
d 5me ui a foot Indicating cavity of at
~ ptb,t tLiclnnss A good flow of wa
US. to. rosmIted which. after casing the well,
/ ; ioa sod to about 100 gallons per min
ny ,,toi 1This enormous flow has continued
NV. fn several weeks and shows no
hom Of Of diminishing. But this is the
siSme ,on,ori,ahle feature of the well.
ieT Tho marvalous fact connected with it
. tho+ large numbers of animals of vari-
n,,s nj L;nds have been coming up in the
U ,,.ntor NOT n dav has passed since the
,'."u hogon to flow without several ami
mails having been brought up. At first
s lnrnS en- small shrimp were noticed, then II
sun ia a,,,r and n little later sowbugs and
s"a anos wore added TO the list, and the
,'.oI, ;s now furnishing A more or less con-
ston+ flow of solamanders, shrimp, SOW
| bmns and sno fInos. Tn to today II
,wen;nons Of the solamander, about Il
1po.o,, onob of thn sowing and sea flea
uo1 a t e" a nint If the shrimp have
hnan S Sn 70 Prof, r. w. Evermann of the
J IEnitod States fish commission here. All
oe thoso animals arc totally blind and
onlorloSs os ;s always the case with ami
eoiI I I;,,;n "' wbaro tberp is no sunlight
Ti ;,ina lass aS tbev did in the dark sub
t ta,,anS us uaters tbnv had no use for
oI,ns, nnd tho only evidence that the ami
w, " a,,or ' nosSnssod sucb an organ are
t .nul' +;nI, dnrl, Snocl,s situated one on
o"J s;jo Of tho nose Professor Ever
u ,'o, et sn,,s +bnt from tba color and an
, NAM Of those snlomonders he Dre-
ppuniod +bot this certoin snncins had lived
IN thoso nndercronnd waters for hundreds
Of roors and that If would require fully
thot ian@th of time for thpir ewes 10 reach
th hcE nresant state Of degenaracy.
Zach of these four animals represents
smecoS entirelv now TO science. The
sowhngs or nillbugs rs they are some
fines called, are small crustaceans, APP
norentIv of the genus Asellopsis. which
helongs in the group called lsopods, ac-
cording to the report submitted on these
creatures Inv the Scientists of the National
museum This sowing is n near relative
Of the omnhipods. n good example of
which is the gammarus. a small crusta-
ceon abounding in many fresh waters
and constituting one of the chief food
articles of fishes. The sea heas also
are amphipods. The particular species
which this well furnishes seems 10 nave
lost it's bearings at some time in the past
and have become stranded in fresh wa
ter. and in a cave. The shrimp is an
other crustacean. belonging to the group
of long-taied decapods. 1t is Il member
of the genus palaemonetes. two or more
species of which are known to occur in
the fresh waters of Texas. These
shrimps are only about half an inch in
length, but their abundance makes up for
their lack in size, and blind shrimp salad
is one of the possibilities at San Marcos.
Hector Won Bayer of the fish commits
sion, was the first to notice these shrimps
coming up and to recognize their scientific
and they were then coming up quite rap
idly. Since then they have increased until
now the daily shrimp output exceeds half
Il pint, according to reports furnished by
Jacob Bedler, who is the agent of the
commission in charge of the well.
But the salamander is by far the strang-
oSr ana n moIt interesting of TINS lot Of curl