"EN RESA TIL NORRA AMERICA." 97 



mens, theils uebersetzen sie ihn Schwedisch, und nennen sie 

 Oxgrodor. Ich hatte heute zum ersteu mahl Gelegenheit, 

 sie zu horen und zu sehen," Germ, ed., in, 140. The fore- 

 going is replaced by Forster's first sentence in the following, 

 otherwise the English fairly renders the Swedish text. 

 "Bullfrogs (Rana boans Linn. Syst. i. p. 358. Rana max- 

 ima, Americana aquatica. Catesb. Carol, ii. 72) are a 

 large species of frogs, which I had an opportunity of hear- 

 ing and seeing to-day. As I was riding out, I heard a 

 roaring before me ; and I thought it was a bull in the 

 bushes, on the other side of the dyke, though the sound 

 was rather more hoarse than that of a bull. I was how- 

 ever^'afraid, that a bad goring bull might be near me, 

 though I did not see him ; and I continued to think so till 

 some hours after, when I talked with some /Swedes about 

 the Bullfrogs, and, by their account, I immediately found 

 that I had heard their voice ; for the Swedes told me, that 

 there were numbers of them in the dyke. I afterwards 

 hunted for them. Of all the frogs in this country, this 

 is doubtless the greatest. I am told, that towards au- 

 tumn, as soon as the air begins to grow a little cool, they 

 hide themselves under the mud, which lies at the bottom 

 of ponds and stagnant waters, and ly there torpid during 

 winter. As soon as the weather grows mild, towards sum- 

 mer, they begin to get out of their holes, and croak. If 

 the spring, that is, if the mild weather, begins early, they 

 appear about the end of March, old stile ; but if it hap- 

 pens late, they tarry under water till late in April. Their 

 places of abode are ponds, and bogs with stagnant water ; 

 they are never in any flowing water. When many of them 

 croak together, they make an enormous noise. Their 

 croak exactly resembles the roaring of an ox or bull, which 

 is somewhat hoarse. They croak so loud, that two peo- 

 ple talking by the side of a pond cannot understand each 



