What is the truth? The salamander is not at all poisonous; on the contrary, like most other batrachians, it is harmless and helpless, and obtains its bad name no doubt from its general lack of beauty, of either shape or color. It is ugly and therefore venomous, is the reasoning. This is hard. What if we should reason that a person is unhandsome and therefore vicious? The skin of the salamander is glandular, and is capable of secreting much fluid, and when the creature is terrified or excited this secretion increases, and the fluid covers the skin. Owing to this fluid, a salamander which by any means finds itself in a fire, might move about for a minute or two looking for an exit from the flames, and get out scatheless, thanks to its watery coat. Besides, these cold-blooded animals are to a certain extent insensitive upon the surface of the body, and would suffer little pain in a brief sojourn in a flame. The stories of salamanders suddenly appearing in a fire as if born there, can be explained by the fact that they hide and sleep in decayed logs, under stones, or among dry, dead sticks, and so might be very likely to wake up in a fire kindled out of doors. The largest of all the salamanders belongs in Asia, and is found in Thibet and Japan. It is the largest of the batrachians, and is about three feet in length. I once saw perhaps the largest specimen ever found, the giant of salamanders. It was two feet, five inches high, from its soles to the top of the arch of its back, and three feet, five inches long from nose to tail tip. Its color was a rusty black, and its skin was covered with thick knobs or granulations, making it look as if dressed in very hard and old embossed leather armor. The head of the salamander is large and rounded; the tail is stiff and elongated; the legs very short; the hind feet are five-toed, the front feet have only four toes. The legs and feet are thick and clumsy, and the larger salamanders are heavy and inert in their motions. Far from finding fire their native or preferred element, the salamanders like cold, damp places; their eggs are dropped in water and hatch there, except those of the spotted salamander of Spain.