Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-05-08
AN ANTEDllUVlAN FROG,
Found siolidIy Imbedded in a Bank
Clay-DevelopiDc His Frops,,in

Found solidIy Imbedded in a Bank of
Ciay-Developing His Frogship.
In the Plenty Valley, Victoria, some time
In the early T0s, road party were making
deep cutting through some clay beds to i'm
prove local traffic facilities The clay beo
was ter tiary formation; II was hard and of
yellow color On the clay bank gum trees
s,me hur dreds of years old, were growing.
when about thirty feet below the surface
block of this clay in falling broke into two
pieces, out of which tumbled little frog.
with boiy about two and one half inches long
and one and 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
Wen nurtured and properly cared for frog.
Inc biock of clay was reduced in size, and
the frog, with the two pieces which formed
the dwelling, was sent to the archaeological
museum, Melbourne. Mr.. Newberry. the
CHIEF OF that institution, examined him very
closely ard found that all the natural orifces
OF the body had closed completely: in fact.
there was of them not trace remaining. In
color the frog was a dirty yellow, such as the
clay, without any variation of tinge Mr.
Newberry sent this creature for identification
to Frede 'ck Mccoy, f. r. S, professor of
natural siences Melbourne unverity. Pro
fessor Mccoy identified him as member of
a well known species whose habits were, in
time of trouble, such as drought OF cold, to
bury themselves in the earth and remain
there unit Il the condition of things was more
to their liking, Members of the species men,
toned, however, were "A yellow color notified
with brown.
After the Identification the creature was
again returned to Mr.. Newberry This gen
tleman determined to see if he could by some
natural process educate the sleepy specimen
INTO more vigorous and better understand
ing of his duties as live frog He was then
domiciled IN a small ferGery in the museum,
and it was decided TO give him bath every
morning, proceeding which froggy seemed
strongly 10 object to, though he swan vtgor
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 contented. This cavity might
be described as fitting him where it touched
him-that is to say, though touching him all
over the more prominent 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 morning bath he had to be dug up
daily, then back he would go again into Sc
clus1on. n little while two patches of dust
were noticed on his nose. These were exam
med by nagnifying glass, and it was found
that In the center of each was an infinitely
minute hole just where the nostrils should be-
After enforced bathing and exercise daily for
about six weeks the dull yellow skin covering
him began to come off in small patches; it
eventually fell off like the slough of a snake,
revealing him as Professor Mccoy said he
should be, nice looking notified brown and
yellow frog, with bright eyes, mouth, nos
trils, etc. After his skin came off he began
to like the water, would jump into it, then
after swim sit underneath the ferns; he
gradually showed liking to blink in the sun
and lily deported himself in the manner
of well 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 ersation pervading our modern civ
lllzation affected him so that he desired to
see how the world had wagged since ages
agone he had bade it good-by, whether it was
for the purpose of examining other objects Of
interest In the museum, or that he stepped
out for refreshments or with a desire to go
a-wooing, history has not been informed; at
all events, instead of meeting the lilly white
duck" of the fable, he came in contact with
the museum cat, who was prowling around,
and, before an attendant looking on could
lie was seized by the cat, who, with
him in her mouth, dashed through an open
window into a shrubbery hard by and no
trace of fr 1ggy was ever again to be found,
Engineering