THE GILLED SALAMANDERS 



2675 



is distinguished by its elongated snake-like body and small and widely-separated 

 limbs, of which the front pair are provided with three, and the hinder with only 

 two toes. The eyes are concealed beneath the skin, the small tongue is free in 

 front, and the palatal teeth are small and arranged in a double series. In the typ- 

 ical form from Carniola the head is elongate, with a long and narrow muzzle, trun- 

 cated at the tip; the mouth being small, with large lips. The short and much 

 compressed tail is provided with a fin, and rounded or bluntly pointed at the tip. 

 The smooth skin is marked by twenty-six or twenty-seven grooves, corresponding 

 to the ribs, and is uniformly flesh colored, with coral-red gills. In a variety from 

 Dalmatia the snout is longer and narrower, and the number of costal grooves only 

 twenty-four; while in a second var'ety, inhabiting Carinthia, the whole form is 



THE 

 (Two-thirds natural size.) 



stouter, the head shorter, with a rounded muzzle, and the number of costal grooves 

 twenty-five. There is also a certain variation as regards color, apparently largely 

 depending upon the amount of light to which the creatures have been exposed; 

 some examples being reddish brown, and others darker with bluish black spots. 

 The usual length is about ten inches. 



Totally blind, the olm is found solely in the subterranean waters of the caverns 

 of the Alps of Carniola, Dalmatia, and Carinthia; and has long been an object of 

 the greatest interest to naturalists. It has been thought that the waters in which 

 the olm lives were all connected underground, and that the creatures only came 

 up during flood time; but the great distance from one another of the various 

 localities where they are found is somewhat against this view. It is, however, only 



