American Notes AMPHIBIANS

"Maybe you understand frogs and maybe you don't understand 'em," says Smiley in Mark Twain's The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. "Maybe you've had experience and maybe you ain't only an amature, as it were." Seattle animal importer Andy Koffman ain't no amateur. In 1986, while visiting the African nation of Cameroon, Koffman watched a 10-lb. Goliath frog leap 30 ft. across a river, and jumped to a conclusion. "The first thing I thought was, 'Wouldn't it be fun to win the Calaveras contest?' " recalls Koffman.

Figuring that the Goliaths could easily shatter the world frog-jumping record of 21 ft. 5 3/4 in. (set in three hops in 1986 by Rosie the Ribbiter, a 1-lb. bullfrog), Koffman entered three of them in this May's 62nd annual Jumping Frog Jubilee at Angels Camp, Calif., site of Twain's tale. Though the California department of fish and game temporarily barred the superfrogs from the state as "undesirable," Koffman will try to convince the bureaucrats that the Goliaths pose no danger -- except perhaps to the pip-squeak American competitors in the Calaveras jump.