THE COMMON FROG. 



*5 



however traced them back to the side of a very 

 large pond, which in spawning-time he was inform- 

 ed always abounded so much with Frogs that 

 their croaking was frequently heard to a great dis- 

 tance ; and he therefore naturally concluded that 

 instead of being precipitated from the clouds, they 

 had been bred there, and had been invited by a 

 refreshing shower, which had just before fallen, to 

 go out either in pursuit of food or of a more con- 

 venient habitation*. 



Frogs are numerous in the parts of America, about 

 Hudson's Bay, as far north as latitude 6i°. They 

 frequent there the margins of lakes, ponds, rivers, 

 and swamps ; and, as the winter approaches, they 

 burrow under the moss, at a considerable distance 

 from the water, where they remain in a frozen state 

 till spring. Mr. Hearne says, he has frequently seen 

 them dug up with the moss frozen as hard as ice. 

 In this state their legs are as easily broken off as the 

 stem of a tobacco-pipe, without giving thera the least 

 sensation : but by wrapping them up in wa-.m skins, 

 and exposing them to a slow fire, they soon come to 

 life, and the mutilated animals gain their usual acti- 

 vity : if, however, they are permitted to freeze 

 again, they are past all recovery f . 



The mode of respiration in these animals, in 

 common with many of the other reptiles, is exceed- 

 ingly curious. The organs adapted to this use are 

 not placed in the belly, nor in the lungs themselves, 



* Ra|r's Wonders of the Creation, J65. i Heaine, 397, 



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