The Effects of a Drought 71 



And now back to the meadows. The last 

 general migratory movement was to the tide- 

 water flats, and here, of course, the moisture 

 and vegetation were unaffected, and I have 

 never seen so crowded a condition as that in 

 which were many of the streams that were 

 never quite dry at even the lowest stage of 

 the tide. The carnivorous fishes waxed fat, 

 for there was an available minnow ever in 

 front of every pike, perch, and bass ; and 

 the grasshoppers, driven to the creek banks, 

 where alone there was green herbage, were 

 continually leaping into the stream, and were 

 snapped up before they could reach the op- 

 posite shore. There was here, however, 

 not such an accession of batrachian life, frogs 

 in particular, as might have been expected, 

 and I failed to notice any undue number of 

 the mud minnow (Umbra limf). This fact 

 led me to make a few examinations of the 

 parched or semi-desiccated areas. I found 

 in two locations, that I had never before 

 known to become dry, that frogs, of three 

 species, and the mud minnow had buried 

 themselves where there still remained moist- 

 ure, but with a crust of dry earth above it. 

 These frogs and fish were like hibernating 



