The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-01-06

SOnNny Cfap0uu IL o Judgo--Hl0 D0fa
Manipulation and Long Experiences
Place Him Ahead Of All Competitors
- Purvsyor Of Batrachlsn Delicaoles.
Three parties OF short-legged French
men from the Acadian settlement on
the upper St. John river have arrived
at Portage Lake, Me-, within a fort
night, and are now at work day and
night spearing frogs for the restaurants
in the big cities. says the New York
Commercial Advertiser. Other citizens
OF Maine know how to spear frogs and
can take as many in a day as the most
Industrious Acadian, but when it
comes to selecting the edible ones and
to dressing them and putting them in
barrels for shipment the deft manipu-
lations and long experience Of Johnny
Crapaud place him far ahead OF all
competitors as a purveyor OF batrach-
Ian delicacies for jaded palates. More
than a million great, fat, green-backed
and sal~mon-bellied frogs were taken
from Portage lake last year. The lake
occupies the larger part of two town
ships, while the vast swamps and bog
lands in which the lake is framed ex-
tend over an area as big as the state
of Rhode Island. Here, among fallen
logs, swamp flags, spearhead water
lilies and Shiny muck the vociferous
and palatable bullfrog reaches fullest
perfection. Billions of them reach the
tadpole stage and millions OF them
assume legs and other functions be-
longing to adult frogs every season.
and though last years harvest Of a
round million will probably be doubled
before the swamps freeze up solid there
will be millions left to cling to the
spears Of other Frenchmen who shall
come here half n century hence. Until
two seasons ago the barbed six-prong-
ed eelspear was an unknown imple-
ment to the frog hunters OF northern
Maine. Those who followed the in"
dustry for profit went along the bor-
ders of this lage in noe and dipped.
the frogs with long-handled nets or
caught them with hook and line, using
red flannel for bait. Meantime the
half-naked children stood on logs and
shot their game with bow and arrow.
1t was a slow process at best, and
though a Maine Frenchman can subsist
for a year on a dozen rabbits and six
bushels of buckwheat, with New
Brunswick fog for butter, he could
not compete with his Canadian breth-
rem who fed on pea soup and muskrat
stew. When the frog catching indus
try was in danger Of utter collapse
for want of financial encouragement
a naturalist from a Massachusetts coll
lege came to Portage lake and told
the h~alf-starved fishermen how to cap
ture frogs with an celspear. He said
that frogs were gregarious in their
habits OF living. In the fall, when the
water beetles had died and the aquatic
worms had gummei themselves into
chrysalis cases the frogs being full fed
and hoarse from much singing OF
nights, buried themselves four or five
feet deep in the mud and made ready
for a winters sleep. The biggest and
latest b%ullfrogs went down first.
Then, as the season grew cold, the
small ones followed and grouped
around their predecessors, huzsing
close up to them, with legs aandsarms
interlocked, until thersgaM1xa6ff1nl
bushel OF twQ~e1f.o<s N 4 81
TAT such times a man In q ahn.I1 80
could pass among the flooded su.-a
and spear out more frogs in ! ia,
than he could get in a week with nst
or nook and line. The Frenchmen n.
not believe him at first, but when 1.
a demonstrated he was right bv ~,
tual trial they abandoned the ID
method n began to make move.
spearing frogs.
An Industrious Frenchman car snao,
about three bushels OF frogs in a day,
t~wo-thirds of which are large enough
to pay for dressing. The body 10 cnt
IN two above the hips, the skin Of the
hips n legs Is pulled off the wav a
man removes his trousers, and when
the white-meated thighs and hins have
been washed they are packed in bar
rels with fish salt enough to keen
them from spelling and sent awav :,
market. The small and lean frogs that
come up on the spear are thrown back
IN the water and allowed to grow IN.
Though most Of them are wounded nv
the spear thrusts, few die Of tbair
injuries. A healthy young frog can
be punched full of holes, and in a wae,
he will be hopping around al livalv
as ever, a fact which has led bicyclis.s
to remarked that they wished pneu-
matte tires were constructed on the
frog plan. The onal from the slaughter
the heads, trunks and skins of thu
slain frogs-is converted into bait for
catching pickerel. As the pickerel IL
the frogs worst enemy, the French
men catch all of these fish they can
eat. knowing that every dead pickerel
means better frog fishing next year.
Between Nov. 10 and Dec. 10 more