1 54 
THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
in a well-lighted glass tank, so that every part of the animal was plainly dis¬ 
cernible. The larger one was a dirty black, and covered with excrescences, while 
the skin was so wrinkled and lay in folds at the side as if the reptile had 
put on a coat very much too large for him. The head was considerably 
greater in diameter than the body, both head and body being flat, or per¬ 
haps four times greater in width than in thickness. The eyes were so small 
that I was a long time examining the creature before being able to dis¬ 
cover them, as they were not only apparently immoderately small but lustreless 
as well. The animal had eaten nothing since its capture up to the time that I 
saw it, by which I judge it may survive many months of fasting without great 
inconvenience. Its food in the natural state is eels and fish, which it contrives 
to capture, notwithstanding the very sluggish nature that it exhibits. In captivity 
the salamander will no doubt develop an appetite for fresh meat, as most carni¬ 
vorous creatures do. 
Large as is the giant salamander , it is but the prototype of a progenitor 
now extinct, which in life was, perhaps, many times greater. In 1726 there was 
discovered near Emingen the skeleton of what was for a long time supposed to 
be a man of giant proportions, who had perished in the deluge, and was profitably 
exhibited as such until critical examination by a scientist showed the bones to 
be those of a salamander. The feet of the salamander are thick, soft, and 
without terminating in claws, contrary to most of the lizard kind. It also differs 
from the lizard in that its young are produced alive, and from the frogs in that 
the young do not pass through a larval state, but are perfectly formed, and 
sometimes as many as fifty are brought forth at a birth. 
There are many species of the salamander found in nearly all parts of 
Europe, but though differing greatly in appearance and size, their habits are very 
similar. They are all amphibious, and appear to live with equal comfort for an 
indefinite time either in or out of the water. While in the water it is said that 
during spring these creatures shed their skins every fourth or fifth day, and in 
the winter every fortnight, a statement which I have had no opportunity of 
verifying. Their vitality is very great, perhaps exceeding that of any other 
animal. The loss of a limb seems to give them small inconvenience, and they 
even survive the loss of the head for several hours. The creature has been known 
to live under dissection until its complete dismemberment was accomplished, the 
tail being last to cease moving. Salt seems to be much more efficacious in 
destroying these animals than the knife ; for upon being sprinkled with it, the 
whole body emits a viscous liquor, and the reptile dies in three minutes, in 
great agonies. 
The whole of the lizard kind are also tenacious of life in another respect, 
and the salamander among the number. They sustain the want of food in a 
surprising manner. One of them brought from the Indies lived nine months 
without any other food than what it received from licking a piece of earth, on 
which it was brought over; another was kept by Seba in an empty vial for six 
months, without any nourishment; and Rhedi talks of a large one, brought 
from Africa, that lived for eight months without taking any nourishment what¬ 
ever. Indeed, as many of this kind, both salamanders and lizards, are torpid, or 
nearly so, during the winter, the loss of their appetite for so long a time is the 
less surprising. 
Many curious fables have long been current about the salamander , not the 
