WESTERN H I N D O O S T A N. 103 



and they make a common difli at the tables. Many arc the 

 modes of accounting for this annual appearance. It has been 

 fuggefted that the fpawn may have been brought bv the water 

 fowl, or may have been caught up by the Typbo}2S, which rage 

 at the commencement of the wet feafon, and be conveyed in the 

 torrents of rain. I can only give an explanation much lefs 

 violent: That thefe fiHiss never had been any where but near 

 the places where they are found. That they have had a pre- 

 exiftent ftate, and began life in form of frogs; that it had 

 been the Raiia paradoxa of G;;/. Lm. iii. p. 10. 55. Their tranf- 

 fc^rmation is certainly wonderful. I refer the reader to Seba^ i. 

 p. 125, tab. 78; and to MeriarC% Suyinam^ p. 7r, tab. 71, in 

 which are full accounts of the wonderful phoenomenon of thefe 

 tranfmuted reptiles, which complete their laft transformation in 

 the firft rains. 



All kinds of reptiles appear about that feafon, among others, Toads, vast. 

 toads of moft enormous fizes. Mr. Ives mentions one that he 

 fuppofed weighed between four and five pounds; and meafured,. 

 from the toe of the fore to that of the hind leg, twenty-two 

 inches. 



I NOW leave thebav, after fayingthat the tides here,andatC<^;/z- 

 bay^ rife to an amazing height ; this muft be underllood, when 

 they are pent up in bays orgulphs, for on the open fliore they do 

 not rife above a foot and a half. Into the eaftern lide flows the 

 river Pen^ v/ith ftoney and fteep banks. Immediately beyond 

 the mouth, the land refumes its courfe. The ifles of A'<?;?<3'r« Isles of Ka- 

 and Hunarvy appear at no great diftance from fliore, fmall and kunar^y." 

 lofty. Sevatjee feized on the firft, in defiance of every effort 



of 



