A NOTE ON THE GIANT SALAMANDER GROUP 



SOME PROBLKMS IN PANORAMIC GROUP CONSTRUCTION 



By Mary Cynihia 1) icier rson 



THE salamanders commonly known are small, only a few inches in 

 length. Two species however grow to great size, the giant sala- 

 mander (Mcgalobatrachiis) of rocky streams among the mountains 

 of Japan and the "hellbender" or "waterdog," also called "giant sala- 

 mander," (Crypfobranchus) of the Ohio River and its tributaries in America. 

 The former is the largest member of the amphibia, occasionally measuring 

 four feet in length; the hellbender does not attain a size of more than two 

 feet. 



A panoramic group recently built in the Museum to show the life history 

 and habits of the American species, is interesting because it presented in the 

 building various problems in technique. A group constructed somewhat 

 previous to this, the bullfrog group, first of a series of panoramic reptile 

 groups under construction, was a departure from other groups in the Mu- 

 seum in that it had to show animal life under water, as well as that above 

 the surface. Thus when the giant salamander group was planned, in which 

 all the animal life had to be represented below the surface of the water^ 

 because the salamanders are thoroughly aquatic, this problem of group 

 making had alreatly been sohed. 



Theri> were others howe\er which seemed insurmountable. One was 

 imposed by the nature of the haunt of the hellbender which lives in rapid 

 flowing rivers and has its nests under rocks with the openings away from the 

 current on the down side of the stream. It seemed no easy task to represent 

 a river as if flowing <lirectly toward the observer, and especially to do this 

 within the limits of seven feet of horizontal foreground — in which the real 

 objects could be displayed — and a vertical painted canvas joined to the fore- 

 ground at the rear and sides. How well the technical difficulties were over- 

 come must be judgctl by each observer of the finished group. He can see 

 most of the means to th(> <>ii(l: the upward slope of the foreground to meet 

 the background ; the arrangement and the \-arying size and color of rocks 

 and accessories to produce perspective; the peculiar cur^•e gi\en to the 

 canvas for the sake of perspective [compare with the bullfrog group]; and the 

 focusing of artificial lights on definite parts of the group to call attention to 

 the immediate foreground and to the sunlight in the distance on the river, 

 leaving the line of union of can\ as and foregrouml in dimness. !Many small 

 details also have been inserted for the sake of realism, such as floating foam 

 on the surface of the water and grasses beneath swept b;^- the current. Again, 

 rocks on the canvas are built out with papier-mache to make them more 



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