186 AN UNEXPECTED APPEARANCE. 



which one has but to catch a certain " little frog that vseth to 

 climb trees, and from thence crieth and croaketh," and having 

 caught it, to spit into its mouth and let it go again ! Our 

 readers will perceive that whatever may be thought of frogs and 

 frog remedies in these days of hydropathy and homoeopathy and 

 universal panaceas, they held a high and distinguished position 

 in the ancient pharmacopoeia. 



No one who has visited the geological restorations in the 

 grounds of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham can fail to recall the 

 ungainly figure of the huge frog-like beast that is represented 

 grimly eyeing the spectators across the water, from the extremity 

 of the first of the three islands in the lake. In this monster, 

 Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins has given us the probable figure and 

 dimensions of the great original and herald of the Batrachian 

 order. For a considerable while, indeed, the Labyrinthodou, 

 as the monster has been christened, was regarded not only as the 

 first introduced of Batrachians, but as the earliest or most ancient 

 form of all air-breathing vertebrated animals. The first-dis- 

 covered traces of the monster occurred in the form of footprints 

 in rocks belonging to the new red sandstone formation, and their 

 discovery astonished the geologists of the day almost as much as 

 the human footprint in the sand astonished our old friepd 

 Eobinson Crusoe. It was a circumstance for which no one was 

 prepared. The universal belief amongst geologists, up to the 

 discovery of these footprints was, that prior to, and during that 

 period of the earth's history represented by the new red sand- 

 stone rocks, no animals higher in the scale of being than fishes 

 had been called into existence ; in other words, that up to that 

 time, the entire life of the globe was confined to the waters of the 

 ancient ocean, and that such portions of the solid crust of the 

 earth as were raised above the waters, and constituted dry land, 

 were altogether desolate and void of life. Here, however, in the 

 newly discovered footprints, was unquestionable evidence that, 

 all unsuspected by the geologists, a large land animal had walked 

 the earth in those early times ; although, so far as was then 

 known, no other memorials remained of it than the impressions 

 of its feet, left in what was once the outspread sands of the 

 ancient sea-shore. Nothing more of course was at first known of 

 the monster than could be gathered from the prints of its large 

 hand-like feet ; but after a while, teeth, bones of the extremities, 



