310 A SECTION OF THE GIANT SALAMANDER GROUP IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM This shows a branch of the Allegheny River in western Pennsylvania where uncouth salamanders or "hellbenders" live in natural caverns under the rocks. It is difficult to distinguish in the photograph where the horizontal real foreground meets the vertical painted background A NOTE ON THE GIANT SALAMANDER GROUP SOME PROBLEMS IN PANORAMIC GROUP CONSTRUCTION By Mary Cynthia Dickerson HE salamanders commonly known are small, only a few inches in length. Two species however grow to great size, the giant salamander (Megalobatrachus) of rocky streams among the mountains of Japan and the "hellbender" or "waterdog," also called "giant salamander," (Cryptobranchus) of the Ohio River and its tributaries in America. The former is the largest member of the amphibia, occasionally measuring four feet in length; the hellbender does not attain a size of more than two feet. A panoramic group recently built in the Museum to show the life history and habits of the American species, is interesting because it presented in the building various problems in technique. A group constructed somewhat previous to this, the bullfrog group, first of a series of panoramic reptile groups under construction, was a departure from other groups in the Museum in that it had to show animal life under water, as well as that above the surface. Thus when the giant salamander group was planned, in which all the animal life had to be represented below the surface of the water, because the salamanders are thoroughly aquatic, this problem of group making had already been solved. There were others however which seemed insurmountable. One was imposed by the nature of the haunt of the hellbender which lives in rapid flowing rivers and has its nests under rocks with the openings away from the current on the down side of the stream. It seemed no easy task to represent a river as if flowing directly toward the observer, and especially to do this within the limits of seven feet of horizontal foreground in which the real objects could be displayed — and a vertical painted canvas joined to the foreground at the rear and sides. How well the technical difficulties were overcome must be judged by each observer of the finished group. He can see most of the means to the end: the upward slope of the foreground to meet the background; the arrangement and the varying size and color of rocks and accessories to produce perspective; the peculiar curve given to the canvas for the sake of perspective [compare with the bullfrog group]; and the focusing of artificial lights on definite parts of the group to call attention to the immediate foreground and to the sunlight in the distance on the river, leaving the line of union of canvas and foreground in dimness. Many small details also have been inserted for the sake of realism, such as floating foam on the surface of the water and grasses beneath swept by the current. Again, rocks on the canvas are built out with papier-maché to make them more SECTION OF THE GIANT SALAMANDER GROUP THE RIGHT BANK OF THE RIVER Wild asters and turning sycamore leaves tell that the time is September. Many giant salamanders (Cryptobranchus allegheniensis) are shown below the surface of the water engaged in their various life activities realistic and the rocks at the rear in the foreground have their real ity lessened by a spray of purple color. Another problem had to do with the technique of making casts of the salamanders. They are thin-skinned and soft-bodied and when taken from the water keep their form about as well as does a jelly-fish and in truth are just about as satisfactory to cast. The impossibility of getting casts of soft-bodied, aquatic amphibians has spurred on some experiment and much discussion in the taxidermy shops of the Museum for a year or more. Casts made from the frozen animals and from forms killed and slightly hardened in formaldehyde had given little more than caricatures of the salamanders and no medium had been found which would harden in water and thus replace plaster of Paris in the mold-making. One day however one of the Museum sculptors, who has studied in Paris art schools, was heard to tell the story of his experience in making a mold of a delicate flower under oil instead of in air. This gave the clue. The salamanders were killed with ether, then immediately posed under oil - kerosene oil was used which is clear and transparentwhere the soft specimens with their delicate rufflings of skin were buoyed up as if alive in water. Then the molds were made, the salamanders still under the oil and the plaster hardening in this medium quite as in air. Thus the wax casts of the group are lifelike not only in matters of pose and form but also in every minute detail of surface texture. Seven of the nine 314 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL full-grown salamanders of the group are such wax casts. The two others are cast from a model in clay made from a study of the living animal. The background of the group, painted by Mr. Hobart Nichols of the American National Academy, is peculiarly successful in its effect of distance brought about by a broadly suggested treatment of river, trees and sky as in a mural decoration. The new group is on exhibition with the bullfrog group in the east tower of the second floor. COOPERATION WITH THE NEW YORK ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY A By Charles W. Leng T the entrance to the east tower room on the third floor there is a sign reading "Local Collection of Insects in the Custody of the New York Entomological Society." This is the public evidence of the coöperation that is in force between the American Museum and this society. As such extensive coöperation is peculiar to this Museum, and in fact to its department of entomology, the history of its origin and results may be interesting. The writer has always believed that the only excuse for the existence of societies, apart from their social features, is the accomplishment of work too comprehensive for an individual to undertake alone, while one of the functions of a public museum is to facilitate such associated efforts and preserve their results. It was therefore encouraging to find that the ideas of the American Museum's director and its scientific staff were entirely in harmony with these thoughts. Consultations were held with leading members of the New York Entomological Society as to the direction in which museum aid could profitably be applied. A permanent meeting place was the first step. Improvements in lighting, increased library facilities, the installation of current entomological literature in the meeting place, the purchase of needed books rapidly followed, and culminated for the time in the commencement of the Local Collection of Insects. The knowledge of our local insects at this time was divided among about one hundred entomologists scattered over the city and suburbs. Each of these men knew something about a few insects from personal observation, knew their names, their habits and food plants, and something about the literature concerning them. Out of the hundred, a few of the older ment knew more than the average, and their collections served to aid the others in obtaining names for their insects. For example Mr. William T. Davis of Staten Island, had a private collection in which, after more than thirty years of incessant field work and study, a goodly part of our local insects could be |