INDICATIONS OF STORM. 303 



These frogs are not identical with the edible frog 

 of the south of Europe, but are the common bull-frog 

 of America. As with the former, the hind-legs only- 

 are eaten. The limbs should be skinned the moment 

 the victim is captured, a process which is easily 

 accomplished when the modus operandi is known. 

 When served, the flesh looks exactly like that of the 

 most delicate spring chicken, while the flavour is 

 superior. 



My fellow-traveller was unacquainted with those 

 fastidious qualms on the subject of diet peculiar to 

 the well-fed children of Albion, so enjoyed his feast 

 with such gusto that I was soon aware that to 

 dawdle over my meal would insure an insufficiency of 

 grub to satisfy my inward man. The result was a 

 race, in which either might have claimed the victory. 

 That each had obtained enough was apparent, for 

 soon after the savoury stew had disappeared, not one, 

 but several reefs were let out in our waist-belts. 



Soon after dark, ominous clouds commenced rising 

 in the west, rushing across the face of the heavens, 

 with the precipitous headlong haste of a stricken 

 army flying before its discomforters, and the glitter- 

 ing, thread-like crescent of the new moon ceased to 

 struggle for the power to light up the shadow- 

 draped landscape. Such indications told of storm 

 and rain. Man, with his want of perception, at this 

 late hour, when 'the cyclone was about to burst, 

 knew it was nigh, while the wild, uncivilised, and 

 uneducated children of nature had, twenty -four 



