WARD’S NATURAL SCIENCE BULLETIN. 
9 
The Giant Salamander of Japan. 
The policy of national seclusion observed by 
the Japanese government towards other nations 
has prevented until very recently any consider- 
able knowledge of its natural products. Only 
the Dutch, who obtained a slight foothold in 
A. D., 1600, were allowed to land at a single 
port for trading purposes. This rigor seems to 
have been relaxed in favor of the two Dutch 
naturalists, Kaempper and 'Ton Siebold, who, one 
in the latter part of the last century, and the 
other in 1825, were permitted to penetrate the in- 
terior and to travel there extensively. From 
there they brought strange and novel forms illus- 
trative of the Fauna and Flora of the country. 
Many of these were quite new to science. And 
among the new animals no one so astonished 
European naturalists as did an immense Sala- 
mander over three feet long, which Yon Siebold 
brought alive from Japan to Holland in 1829. 
This giant of ils kind was carefully cared for in 
the Zoological Garden of Amsterdam, where we 
believe it still exists ; at least we saw it there in 
its full vigor about six years ago. In a late visit 
to Japan for the purpose of collecting specimens 
for the Ward Establishment there was no animal 
for which we sought so eagerly as for this great 
Salamander, the largest by more than twice in 
length and weight of all the ninety-eight species 
of Urodela or tailed Batrachians now known to 
science. And as about seventy of these species 
are found in North America, it seemed peculiarly 
desirable that we should bring this chief of tile 
class to be seen and studied by our own natural- 
ists. We had not been long in the country be- 
fore we saw some small species of this genus 
(Sieboldia maxima), in captivity at the University 
of Tokio. But the specimens were all small — not 
greatly larger than our Menopoma of the Ohio 
river which, in its permanent absence of external 
gills, and in general form, they much resembled. 
Few of the Japanese know of this giant form. 
So when my guide, who saw these with me, 
mentioned their name, as given us at the muse- 
um — Sansho Uwo — to the people in country places, 
they proceeded to show us other species of Sala- 
mander, all of which Order came, as we after- 
wards found, under that general name. Later on 
we learned to ask for Haze Koi, which is 'the 
name applied distinctively to the giant species in 
the region where it is found. Our winter visit 
was against us, for the reason that the Haze Iioi 
inhabits upland lakes quite in the interior of the 
largest island, Niphon, which region was now 
quite covered with snow. But while one day 
visiting one of the great temples of the old capi- 
tal city Kioto, we saw in the possession of one of 
the Bonzes or Priests two splendid specimens of 
our Giant Salamander, which were kept by them 
for showing to the curious in a tank. We worked 
hard and determinedly until we had bought 
these. We transferred our prizes to two bas- 
kets half filled with wet straw, and then to(fk 
them with us to the port of Kobe where we took 
passage for Yokohama. During the voyage — of 
but two or three days — we took care to "have our 
pets frequently drenched with water, which their 
former keeper had told us would be all they 
would require. During a stay of a month at 
Yokohama we put our two specimens together in 
a small tub of water which receptacle also served 
to bring them across the Pacific to San Francis- 
co-eighteen days more. We gave them nothing 
to eat during this voyage, but we changed the 
water in the tub every few days. All went well 
until the day before we reached the Golden Gate, 
when one Salamander died. We attribute its 
death to the warmth of the condensed water with 
which we that day replenished their tub, togeth- 
er, perhaps, with the iron rust which was so 
copiously in the water as to tinge it red. This 
specimen we put in spirits. The other we left in 
the tub during our whole stay of two months at 
San Francisco, only changing the water frequent- 
ly and feeding it every two weeks. Once more 
we took our specimen in a basket for our trip 
across the continent by the Southern route, which 
with some stoppages, took about a fortnight. 
During all this time our Salamander ate nothing, 
but was wet down every morning and night with 
a large dipper-full of cold water. On reaching 
Rochester we transferred it to an open tub sunk 
gs 
in the ground in our garden, and filled every three 
days with fresh water. Now, after four mouths 
of American citizenship, it is well and hearty, 
and has we think, grown a trifle. This is a very 
satisfactory result of the first effort ever made to 
our knowledge to bring the Giant Salamander to 
America. Its cryptobranch organization — -with- 
out external gills — aided greatly in its land trans- 
poitation, breathing free air. 
Now our great Salamander is permanently lo- 
cated in his tub, and we take a fair look at him. 
Our artist and fellow-workman, Mr. Staebner has 
given us above a good sketch of the strange 
creature. Its general form is that of the “ Hell- 
bender ” (Menopoma), of our Pennsylvania and 
Ohio rivers ; but its head is flatter and with a 
rounder outline in front. Its body is roughened 
by a net-work of wrinkles, and is bordered on 
either side by a frilled fringe of skin which adds 
to its width, and is a prominent feature in its ap- 
pearanee. Its tail is long, large, and laterally 
flattened, with a row of very prominent tuber- 
cules along its median line on either side. Its 
flabby, clammy skin is of a dull grey brown, 
clouded with dark spots along the back and pass- 
ing to a lighter liver-color beneath the body. 
The back is sparsely sprinkled with pustules, 
which so increase in number and in size upon the 
head that they cover its entire surface with prom- 
inent spherical warts of a frightful appearance. 
Burned among these and wide, separate, toward 
either side or edge of the head, are its extremely 
small lidless eyes, while, close together at the 
extreme front of head, are the two small nostrils. 
When we open its great red mouth we find a row 
of mjn'iad fine teeth bordering the lower jaw and 
arranged in two concentric rows on vomer and 
maxilla of upper jaw. The tongue is large, but 
adheres to jaw around its whole margin. There 
are no signs of gill-openings in our individual, 
although traces of these — cicatrized lines (?) — are 
said to have been observed in very young indi- 
viduals. Our specimen is probably a male, as it 
is somewhat more sturdy and has a more warty 
head than had the one which died on the Pacific 
trip, and which as we opened it to put in 
spirits, we found to be quite full of eggs. The 
habits of our great Salamander are negatively 
peculiar ; by which we mean to say that it is so 
inert and quiet that it can hardly be said to have 
any habits at all. Its sluggishness is so complete 
and so. persistent that it is often very difficult to 
determine whether it is really alive. It ordinari- 
ly lies perfectly motionless at the bottom of its 
tub, only changing place gradually to get on the 
shady side as the sun moves around the horizon. 
At intervals of fifteen or twenty minutes it raises 
its head so as to bring its nostrils above the sur- 
face of water, when it gives a little sputtering 
expiration, then draws a short breath -and sinks 
again to its quiet at the bottom. Once in two or 
three weeks we put a few dozen small fish, alive, 
into the tub. For some time our Salamander 
gives no sign. But when at length one of these 
minnows swims directly in front of its nostrils or 
against its eye, it opens its mouth and throws its 
whole head sideways at its prey with a vicious 
snap which surprises by its contrast to the ani- 
mal’s previous inertness. It does not follow the 
minnows around the tub, but takes each one with 
a sudden snap as it comes swimming up until all 
are eaten. After this, its extraordinary activity 
settles to another two weeks of almost death-like 
unmotion. Only once have we found that in the 
night it had crawled out of its tub, full to brim 
with water, onto the grassy bank on same level 
on the outside.. It lazily resists handling, sliding 
like a stout eel from our hands. When undis- 
turbed its skin appears clean and sleek ; but when 
handled, it exudes from entire surface of the bo- 
dy — notably from the dorsal region — a white, 
milky fluid which is so sticky and tenacious that 
it can hardly be washed or even scraped from the 
fingers. Our individual, perhaps because it is 
growing, is ever sloughing or shedding its skin, 
which every week or ten days comes off in shreds 
and patches to such an extent as to quite cloud 
and muddle the water of its tub. It prefers the 
coldest water ; indeed when we bought the two 
specimens at Kioto, we had to reach them by 
breaking a half inch crust of ice which covered 
and sealed hermetically the tub in which 
they lived. In its native island of Niphon, 
the Giant Salamander inhabits small mountain 
streams particularly around Lake Beba. There 
they lie perdu beneath the cover of great stones 
from which they rarely emerge, but feed upon 
small fish which come to tkernT Their reproduc- 
tion doubtless takes place in the summer ; but 
whether they lay eggs or are vipiparous. is not 
decided. The Japanese catch them by wading 
in the water or by turning it off with a temporary 
dam. The cold and ice of the severest winter 
time seems to be favorable to them. 
We believe that we have all conditions in our 
favor for keeping our Giant Salamander, king of 
the tailed Batrachia, for many years to come 
H. A. W. 
P. S. — Sieboldia maxima has left us! We keep 
nothing at our establishment "which is not at the 
call of our clients, especially when wanted for 
scientific uses. And thus we have yielded our 
great Salamander to Prof. Burt G. Wilder, the 
well-known naturalist of Cornell University. He 
will keep his Japanese Majesty alive, and will, 
we trust, report to the scientific world about 
him yearly during the next half century. 
