MOORLAND IDYLLS. 



retires to the mud at the bottom of the pond 

 in late autumn, and there lies torpid as long 

 as the frost lasts, returning to the surface to 

 breathe when the weather improves again. 

 But the smaller newt, a more adventurous 

 soul, goes ashore in summer, when the pond 

 dries up, and stops there for the winter, 

 lurking in long grass at the bottoms of 

 ditches, or hiding in caves and damp vaults 

 or cellars. 



There are no fish in the pond, of course, 

 because it is not permanent ; it dries up in 

 August. But there are frogs and tadpoles 

 by the thousand in due season ; and, what 

 is odder still, the frogs are there now, though 

 you cannot see them. Indeed, frogs and 

 newts are merely slight variations on the 

 fishy type, evolved to meet this very want 

 and to fill this very place in the economy of 

 nature : practically speaking, they are fish 

 which turn at last into terrestrial reptiles. 

 During the earlier spring days, when the 

 ponds are full, the parents lay their spawn 



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