Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-07-11
AN ANTEDlLUvlAN FROG STORY. .
Curious Story of Little Animal Which
Probably Lived Over O,OOO Years.

Probably Lived Over 10000 Years.
The daily press has recently devoted
4 some length to detailing the later his
/ tory of an old toad, who was only al
lowed to live three days after having
! been dug out of the cavity wherein he
/ had secluded himself for tritie over
/ twenty thousand years or more, and
I how 'local surgeon" endeavoring to
! improve on nature. ''hoping to enable
/ him to take food, slit the membrane by
which his mouth was closed, and the
| patient unfortunately had not suffi-
Gent vitality to survive the opera
tion." The theory has been discussed
as to whether the toad would have
| continued to live above ground had he
| been left in the natural condition in
which he was found, the length of
whose retirement could only be meas
ured by geological period of time,
and who was returned to his long past
overground life and condition by natur-
al means.
In the Plenty valley, Victoria, some
time in the early 70's, road party
were making a deep cutting through
some clay beds to improve local traffic
facilities. The clay bed was tertiary
formation; it was hard and of yellow
color. On the clay-bank gum-trees,
some hundreds of years old, were
| growing. When about thirty feet be-
low the surface block of this clay in
falling broke into two pieces, out of
| which tumbled a little frog, with a
| body about two and one-half inches
long and one and one-quarter inches
wide. He seemed blind and sleepy,
though showing every evidence of
life; he was apparently as strong as
any other frog of the same size; he was
in no way thin; in fact, seemed to be
well-nurtured and properly cared-for
frog.
The block of clay was reduced in
size and the frog, with the two pieces
which formed his dwelling. was sent
| to the archaeological museum, Mel
bourne. Mr.. Newberry, the chief of
that institution, examined him very
! closely, and found that all the natural
/ orifices of the body had closed COM
pletely; in fact, there was of them not
a trace remaining. In color the frog
was dirty yellow, such as the clay,
without any variation of tinge. Mr..
| Newberry sent this creature for identi-
| fication to Frederick Mccoy, F. R. S.,
| professor of natural sciences. Mel
bourne university. Prof. Mccoy identi-
! fed him as member of the well-known
species whose habits were, in times of
trouble, such as drought or cold. to
| bury themselves in the earth and re-
main there until the condition of things
was more to their liking. Members of
the species mentioned, however. were
a yellow color notified with brown;
after the Identification the creature
was again returned to Mr.. Newberry.
This gentleman determined to see if
he could by some natural process
educate the sleepy specimen into a
more vigorous and better understand
! ing of his duties as live frog. He
was then domiciled in a small fernery
in the museum, and it was decided to
| give him bath every morning, pro-
ceeding which froggy seemed strongly
to object to, though he swan vigor-
ously while in the water. When put
! back into his clay cavity he wriggled
himself about until he found the old
groove, folded himself up, and seemed
most contented This cavity might be
| described as fitting him wherever it
touched him, that is to say, though
| touching him all over the more prom
inent parts of the body, the clay was
/ not nodded into the hollows formed by
the folding of his limbs.
After a short while the clay bed was
| taken from him and he was put among
the ferns on the mold, into which he
rapidly sank stern first by peculiar
motion of his hind legs. For his morn
| ing bath he had to be dug up daily,
then back he would 90 again into Sc
clusion. In a little while two patches
| of dust were noticed on his nose; these
were examined by magnifying- glass,
| and it was found that in the center of
each was an infinitely minute hole,
| just where the nostrils should be. At
| ter enforced bathing and exercise daily
for about six or eight weeks the dull
yellow skin covering him began to
come off in small patches; it eventual
| ly fell off like the slough of a snake,
revealing him, as Prof. Mccoy said he
should be, a nice-looking notified brown
and yellow frog, with bright eyes,
mouth, nOstrils, etc.
After his skin came off, he began to
like the water, would jump into it,
| then after a swim sit underneath the
ferns; he gradually showed liking to
blink in the sun and generally disport-
ed himself in the manner of a we'll
conducted frog, though he was never
| seen to take any food. One day the
door of the fernery was left open;
whether it was that the Unsuitable de-
sire for sensation pervading our mod
ern civilization affected him, so that he
| desired to see how the world had
wagged since ages agone he had bid it
goodbye, whether it was for the pur-
! pose of examining other objects of in
j terest in the museum, or that he step
! ped out for refreshments, or with de-
sire to go a-wooing, history has not
been informed; at all events, instead of
meeting the ''lily white duck" of the
fable, he came in contact with the mu-
scum cat, who was prowling around,
and before an attendant looking on
could interfere, he was seized by the
| cat, who, with him in her mouth, dash
ed through an open window into
shrubbery hard by, and no trace of
! froggy was ever again to be found
! London Engineering.
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