TRUE AS SINGULAR. 435 



return homeward from visiting a patient, when a summer 

 shower reminded him that it would sharpen the appetite of 

 the bullheads in the river which he was approaching, and he 

 therefore reined up under a shed near the river, hitched his 

 horse, cut an ash pole, found a line armed with a hook and 

 sinker in his pocket, dug some angle-worms, and forthwith 

 went a-fishing. 



There was a punt moored at the shore, and, leaving it an- 

 chored to the side of the stream, he stepped into it and be- 

 gan to fish. The bullheads put in an appearance immediate- 

 ly, so that within half an hour he had taken some two dozen 

 fish, and as fast as he took them he cast them on the grassy 

 bank of the shore. Having a pretty good mess, he cut a 

 switch and went to string them, when not one was to be 

 found. This surprised the doctor, and he at once concluded 

 to solve the mystery, and so commenced fishing again, and 

 throwing the fish on the shore as he had before done, but 

 keeping a sly watch of them. After he cast the fourth one, 

 a large bullfrog leaped from the water, took hold of a bull- 

 head, and rolled into the water with it ; leaping out imme- 

 diately, and taking another fish, he rolled in as before, and so 

 continued until he had returned the four to the water. The 

 doctor continued fishing, and as fast as he had cast three or 

 four fish on shore, the bullfrog returned and helped them 

 back into the river. 



As Dr. White is an educated gentleman who enjoys the 

 confidence of a very wide professional and intellectual con- 

 nexion, I feel assured of the truth of the foregoing incident, 

 and therefore report the case for Professor Agassiz or some 

 other naturalist, with the view to a learned decision on the 

 nature of the link which connects the bullhead and frog. 



The bullfrog could not have helped the bullheads back to 

 the stream to feed on them, for the spiked dorsal and pecto- 

 rals of the latter forbid it. Even the pike the most vora- 

 cious fresh -water fish in the world, excepting the silurce, 

 which is a species of catfish is deterred from the attempt. 



