Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/284

276 The European Proteus (Proteus anguinus, .) is much like an eel with minute feet, and is one of the most interesting links in the chain of animated nature, connecting the Reptiles with the Fishes. The deep and dark subterranean lakes of Austria are the only locality in which this singular creature has yet been discovered. One of the most romantic and

splendid caverns in Europe is the Grotto of the Magdalene, near Adelsburg, in the duchy of Carniola. The whole of that region consists of bold craggy rocks and mountains of limestone formation, perforated with spacious branching caverns, in whose awful recesses sleep the