cave dweller (kavdwel"er)

1. One who dwells in a cave; a troglodyte; specifically, a member of the prehistoric race of men who dwelt in natural caves, subsisting on shell-fish and wild animals. Many of the caves which they inhabited contain their rude implements and sculptured drawings, together with animal and sometimes human bones, in superimposed layers, separated by limestone or other deposits. See bone - cave. Also called caveman. Our knowledge of primitive man in Europe, during the pal eolithic age, is mainly confined to what has been learned in regard to the life and habits of the so-called cave-dwellers. Science, III. 489. 2. pl. [ cap.] A name given to the Bohemian Brethren (which see, under Bohemian ), because they hid in caves to escape persecution. cave-fish (kāv'fish), n. A fish of the family Amblyopsidæ that inhabits caves. There are several species, all viviparous, some of them blind, inhabiting cave-streams of the southern and western United States, as Amblyopsis spelœus and Typhlichthys subterrane us. Cholo gaster papillifer, C. aga izi, and C. cornutus, of the same family, are found in open ditches in South Carolina. See cut under Amblyopsis.