810 



A N N U A L R E G I S T E Pt, 1 S04 



proving the second. It would be 

 matter "of some importance to ascer- 

 tain, that the same quadruped pro- 

 duces its young in some measure 

 two different ways ; that there are 

 eggs which the female lays, and 

 others the foetus of which comes 

 forth in the belly of the salamander, 

 to remain afterwards enclosed, with 

 other foetuses, in a kind of trans- 

 parent membrane, until the moment 

 in which it is brought into tlie 

 world. Were this the case, it would 

 be necessary to dissedt salamanders 

 at ditferent periods very near one 

 another, from the time of their 

 coupling, until that when they bring 

 forth their young ; one might care- 

 fully trace the successive increase of 

 the young till they were perfectly 

 formod, and compare them with 

 the growth of those which are hatch- 

 ed from the egg, out of the mother's 

 belly, &c. ilowever this may be, 

 the female salamander brings forth 

 young perfe6tly formed, and her 

 fecundity is very great. Natural- 

 ists have long written that she has 

 forty or fifty at one time, and INlr. 

 de Maupertius found 42 young ones 

 in the body of a female salamander, 

 and i)4 in another. 



The young salamanders are gene- 

 rally of a black colour, almost with- 

 out spots, and this colour they pre- 

 serve sometimes during their whole 

 lives in certain countries, where they 

 have been taken for a distinft spe- 

 cies, as we have said. Mr. Thunbcrg 

 has given, in the memoirs of the 

 academy of Sweden, the dcscri))tion 

 of a lizard, which he calls the Ja- 

 panese lizard, and which appears 

 not to differ from our salamander 

 but in the arrangement of its co- 



lours. This animal is almost black, 

 with several whitish and irregular 

 spots, both on the upper part of the 

 body and below the paws : on the 

 back there is a stripe of dirty white, 

 which becomes narrower to the point 

 of the tail. This whitish stripe is 

 interspersed with very small specks, 

 which form the distinguishing cha- 

 racteristic of our land salamander : 

 we are of opinion, therefore, that 

 wcniayconsider this Japanese lizard, 

 described by Mr. Tumberg, as a 

 variety of the species of our land 

 salamander, modified a little per- 

 haps by the climate of Japan. It 

 is in the largest island of that em- 

 pire, named Niphon, that this va, 

 riety is found. It inhabits the moun- 

 tains there, and rocky places, which 

 indicates that its nature is like that 

 of our land salamander, and con- 

 firms our conjectures respedling the 

 identity of the species of these two 

 animals. The Japanese attribute 

 to it the same properties with which 

 the skiaque has been long thought 

 to be endowed, and which in Eu- 

 rope have been attributed also to 

 the flat-tailed salamander ; they con- 

 sider it as a powerful stimulant and 

 a very active remedy, and on this 

 account, in the neighbourhood of 

 Jedo, a number of these Japanese 

 salamanders maybe seen dried hang- 

 ing from the ceiling of the shops. 



Description of the Copper Mines and 

 Works in the Island of Jnglesea. 

 From Binglejj's Tour in North 

 Wales. 



Ne9.r the lake* Amlwch is a 

 small market town of the same 



• This loch or lake, from which the town has its name, was situated betwixt 

 the diuich and the port. It has been long drained, and is now iji a state of 



pultivatiou. 



3 name, 



