REPTILES, SNAKES AND AMPHIBIANS EATEN AS FOOD, 251 



ably of late. A man named B., of Vance, has forwarded 

 200,000 in the last three weeks ; on Thursday he sent 

 off 30,000. They are chiefly sent to Rheims, Nancy, and 

 Paris. A. thousand frogs fetch 13 francs (10s. 6d.), and 

 weigh 50 kilogrammes ( 1 cwt.). They enter France duty 

 free. At Rheims 25 pairs of frogs' legs can be bought 

 for 60 centimes (6d.). .The thighs, as everyone knows, 

 (des- sucmknts rdtis) are served with white sauce and in 

 a fricassee. They are thus a dish by no means to be 

 despised." But the rest of the body, and the skin — the 

 sticky, slimy skin — what is done with that? Why 

 they make — turtle soup of it ! Yes, that savoury mock 

 turtle over which gourmands lick their lips, has for 

 its chief foundation the amphibians which haunt the 

 marshes and the fields of Luxembourg. The autumn 

 and the spring are the best time of year for frogs. In 

 Vienna, where the consumption of frogs is considerable, 

 they are preserved alive and fattened in froggeries 

 {grenouillieres) constructed for the express purpose. 



Wallace, in his " Travels on the Amazon," states that 

 " his Indians went several times early in the morning 

 to the gapo to catch frogs, which they obtained in great 

 numbers, stringing them on a sipo, and boiling them 

 entire, entrails and all, and devoured them with much 

 gusto. The frogs are mottled of various colours, have 

 dilated toes, and are called jui." 



The large frog, or crapaud, of Dominica {Cystignathus 

 ocelatus), is a part of the dietary of the people of all 

 classes in that colony. According to Dr. Imray it is 

 very wholesome and much relished. It is much esteemed 

 as an article of food, the flesh when fricasseed being 

 preferred to chicken, and made into soup, it is recom- 

 mended for the sick, especially in consumptive cases. 

 Its extensive destruction by the mischievous opossum 

 has been a great evil to the country, but its extermina- 

 tion would be a serious loss. Happily, however, it ap- 

 pears to be gaining ground of late, though it can never 

 abound as formerly, while the " Manicou," or opossum, 

 which feeds upon it, exists in the woods. 



