32 DATS OUT OF DOORS. 



quite conspicuous. It would seem as though they trusted 

 wholly to their sight and take the chances of being sur- 

 prised. When on land their hearing is also largely de- 

 pended upon. 



One patriarchal bull-frog a giant even among his 

 gigantic race was far more entertaining, as it proved, 

 than the small fry that shared with him this cozy notch in 

 the hill-side. Perhaps he was asleep all the while, or too 

 lazy to look up; but there he sprawled upon a water- 

 logged chip, down on boiling sands that at times shut him 

 from view. By more uncertain light I might have ques- 

 tioned his identity, and the strange figure he cut when I 

 prodded him with my cane prompted me to exclaim, 

 " Whence and what art thou, execrable shape ? " ' The 

 sound of my voice appeared to rouse him, although be- 

 neath the surface of the water, quite as much as my cane 

 had done. There appeared then a knowing glitter in his 

 eyes, and he scanned me closely as might a gem in its 

 matrix, were it conscious. I determined upon that great 

 frog's capture, and after a deal of trouble succeeded. But 

 I was repaid for it all. Taking his frogship up very ten- 

 derly, I handled him until quite warm and active, and 

 then placed him very gently upon a ridge of snow, some 

 twenty feet from the spring. The frog was evidently 

 quite bewildered, and the contact of his aldermanic 

 paunch with the snow was not only a novel but painful 

 experience. After some slight alterations of position as 

 though seeking relief the troubled creature gave one 

 mighty leap and landed in a little drift that had no sus- 

 taining crust. The frog quite disappeared, and, to my 

 great astonishment, when I reached the spot I found that 

 he was burrowing with all his strength, in search evidently 

 of the ground beneath. 



Bringing him again to the surface, I expected to see 

 either another leap for life or a repetition of the burrow- 



