Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Palaeontology, Zoology, Geology, Exhibitions, Amusement, Biblical Authority

    In reference to the frog that emerged from a block of coal displayed at the International Exhibition, the author ponders the identity of 'this toad in the hole [...] Who spends all his life in a coal', who, from its aristocratic colours, 'was famous of yore', who has inspired an 'Opéra Comique' in which 'Buckland does alto and bass', and whose antiquity (it 'yachted with Noah in the ark') inspires awe. Considers the 'morning primaeval' seen by its 'somnolent eyes' and that its sounds 'Preluded Lab-rinthodon's croak'. Compares the frog favourably to the remains of other prehistoric beasts, including the mammoth and the iguanodon, and tells various geological and palaeontological specimens from earth's antiquity that they cannot compete with the frog in the coal.