It was at a season of the greatest drought known for years in that portion
of the town.

The point selected for this trout-pond was at the farthest eastern source
of what is known as "Honey Pot" brook in Cheshire, a famous one for trout
in former years. Mr. Bishop proposed to stock his pond with the best spawn
he could procure. We remarked to him that there was no need of that
expense, as no stream ever produced better trout than the "Honey Pot"; and
on closely examining one of the six or eight cold springs developed in his
enclosure, to his surprise, not ours, we discovered several small trout,
not more than six weeks old, as lively as they could well be under the
blasting operations then going on there; while his children were fishing
out from the rocks any number of young frogs (of the common _Rana_
family), abounding wherever rocks and water make their appearance in
similar localities. This incident was all the more remarkable for the
reason that this small stream, or rather source of one, had been
apparently dry for months, as had been many of the best wells in the town.

Our well, in the western part of the town, had been dug some six feet
into the solid rock and an inexhaustible supply of the coldest water
secured. We invited our neighbors, those living on both sides of us, as
well as at some distance from us, to come and draw all the water they
wanted, remarking that they might now and then draw up a small frog,
originating therein, but that, by fishing him out of the pail, he would
make his way to the neighboring streams not dry, and would flourish well
enough as one of the _Rana_ family. It was only to our more intelligent
neighbors (such as Mr. Bishop) who had read our work on "Life," that we
stopped to explain this phenomenal fact. And so of all life, wherever it
appears, whether vegetable or animal. Our experiments with mosquitoes are
equally conclusive. Three years ago we took two barrels of rain-water