THE GIGANTIC SALAMANDER. 



177 



it by the seller. It lives in the lakes and pools that exist in the basaltic mountain ranges of 

 Japan. 



Dr. Von Siebold brought the first living specimen to Europe, and placed it in a tank 

 at Leyden, where it was living when the last accounts were heard, having thus passed a period 

 of many years in captivity. Its length is about a yard. Two specimens were brought over at 

 the same time, being of different sexes, but on the passage, the male unfortunately killed and 

 ate his intended bride, leaving himself to pass the remainder of his life in celibacy. It 

 fed chiefly on fish, but would eat other animal substances. 



Another fine specimen attracted much notice in spite of its ugliness and almost total want 

 of observable habits. It is very sluggish and retiring, hating the light, and always squeezing 

 itself into the darkest corner of its tank, where it so closely resembles in color the rock-work 

 near which it shelters itself, that many persons look at the tank without even discovering its 

 presence. The length of this specimen is about thirty -three inches, and if it survives, it may 

 possibly attain even a larger size. The specimen shown in the engraving on next page is 

 reduced to one-fifth of its natural size. 



AXOLOTL. Axototetes guttatus. 



The head of this creature is large, flattened, and very toad -like in general aspect, except that 

 it is not furnished with the beautiful eyes which redeem the otherwise repulsive expression of 

 the toad. The head is about four inches wide at the broadest part, and is covered with innumer- 

 able warty excrescences. The eyes are extremely small, placed on the fore part of the head, 

 and without the least approach to expression, looking more like small glass beads than eyes. 



The whole upper part of the body is covered thickly with excrescences, and even the 

 under part of the rounded toes are studded with little tubercles, which can be plainly seen 

 with a magnifying lens as the creature presses its feet against the glass wall of its tank. 

 Despite of its sluggish nature, it is quite able to obtain its own subsistence by catching 

 the fish on which it feeds, and the keeper told me that even in captivity it easily catches the 

 fish that are put into its tank. On the journey, it was mostly fed upon eels, and at the present 

 time it eats eels as well as other fish, provided they are rather small. 



It is well to mention casually in this place that the human-looking skeleton, discovered at 

 (Eningen in 1726, and long supposed to be the fossil skeleton of a man who had perished in 

 the deluge, is nothing more than the bones of a huge Salamander, closely allied to the present 

 species. The color of the Gigantic Salamander is a very dark brown, with a tinge of 

 chocolate, and taking a lighter and more yellowish hue upon the under surface of the feet. 



VOL. m. 93. 



