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It is to be presumed that careful dredging will bring to light many more: the pools are said to produce a small black fish, local as the Proteus anguineus of the Styrian caves, to mention no other. I was curious to hear from Mr. Mackey some details about the Muni River, where he travelled in company with M. du Chaillu.
Nature, therefore, has in this case compensated the amblyopsis for his loss of sight by endowing him with a highly developed organ of feeling. Better known than the blind fish and the blind crab of Kentucky is the Proteus anguineus, a kind of salamander, of a pale rose color, endowed with gills and found in the Adelsberg grotto in Austria.
This is the more likely to be true as in many other cases, also, we find that organs which become useless and cannot be employed have gradually degenerated. Our common mole furnishes an example. Its eyes also have become small and are deeply hidden in the muscles, although they are by no means as much degenerated as in the Proteus anguineus, and are still possessed of a lens and a retina.
On the other hand, one may suppose, and this is the more probable explanation, that the Proteus anguineus is descended from a kind of salamander, which possessed perfectly developed eyes in the beginning, and that the imperfect organ of vision in the descendants living in the dark caves is the result of gradual degeneration.
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