THE FROG IN THE ROCK

Northland Age, Volume 1, Issue 9, 4 December 1931, Page 8

THE FROG IN THE ROCK

An interested reader forwarded a copy of our recently published account of the finding of a frog in solid rock at Kohukohu to Prof. R. Speight, curator of the Canterbury Museum at Christchurch, for his opinion. Prof. Speight replied as follows : “I am in receipt of your letter and the communication re the frog supposed to be found in a rock. No animal, frog or toad, can live indefinitely in a rock, although they are supposed to do so, especially the latter. They require air and food. An experiment was made some years ago in which toads were placed in a hole in a rock and hermetically sealed. In one case all the toads were dead and decomposed within six months, and in the other case where the rock was porous they lived longer, but died within 18 months. They probably hibernated for this time. “In the cases of frogs being found in rocks, there is first of all no certainty that they were actually in the rock, and secondly they might have been in a crevice in communication with the air, and in some cases they may have hidden when small and been unable to get out when grownup. In any case this frog is no doubt the imported variety, since native frogs are very rare, and it could not have got into the rock when formed, so it must have hidden itself in some hole in contact with air. It could not live without air nor long without food, and it seems therefore certain that it was not in a piece of rock absolutely enclosed. The Maori must have fancied it.”