b. ?, d. ?
Jie published in 1541 (Jie 1541) what may have been the first printed
report of a cave fish, Sinocyclocheilus hyalinus for the Alu Limestone
caves (103o 45'E, 24o 33‘N) in what is today Luxi County, Yunnan,
China. In the Yi language, 'A'lu' means with water and stone.
The cave is called 'Ancient Alu Caves' (also Alugu Caves) because it used
to serve as the living unit of 'A'lu Tribe', one of the 37 barbarian
tribes in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The Ancient Alu Cave is
actually composed of three caves, namely the Luyuan Cave, the Yuzhu Cave
and the Biyu Cave. and the Yusun River. The total length for human
penetration in about 3,000 meters. The 800 meters long Yusun River
is where the hyaline cave fish is found.However,
specimens of the hyaline fish were not collected for research until 1991
and the description of the species was not published in the scientific
literature until three years later (Chen et al. 1994). |
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Transcript of the text by Yi-Jing Jie
'According to Wu, on the
left, just below where there is water; its depth cannot be measured.
This is where the famous toù ming (transparent) fish lives, near the
outflow (where) water comes out.' |
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