324 CHAPTER XLV. 



in fact it would have drowned if he had not helped it 

 out again. If the green Frog has the same power of 

 imbibing dew through the skin, we are able to under- 

 stand how he subsists upon the dry hill-sides of the 

 Riviera at a distance from the water. 



An Englishman carried home a couple of green 

 Frogs, and placed them in his hothouse. Before long 

 they both disappeared, and found their way to a basin 

 in a neighbouring garden. Here they lifted up their 

 voices and croaked triumphantly, to the great surprise 

 of the dwellers in that house. They were captured, 

 and taken back to the hothouse, but as soon as ever 

 they felt dry again they absconded, climbed over the 

 wall, and turned up in the pond as before. 



There is another little mystery about the green 

 Frog. How can he perch with his tender body on 

 the top of an Opuntia ? If he attempted to jump on 

 to a Cactus from some other plant, he might impale 

 himself : he has too much sense to run a risk of this 

 sort. It follows that he must climb up from the foot 

 of the Cactus, as he is not able to fly. He must, 

 therefore, thread his way through a labyrinth of 

 spines which scarcely allow room for his body to 

 pass. How would you like to walk a mile naked, 

 squeezing your body between the very sharpest 

 bayonet-points every inch of the way ? Yet the Tree 

 Frog can do this, and seems to enjoy it. Once 

 securely seated on the Opuntia, or in the heart of an 

 Agave, he is like a New Zealander in his pah, or a 

 Scotch metaphysician entrenched behind the Absolute, 

 the Infinite, and the Unconditioned ; you cannot get 

 at him anyhow. 



