458 Short Communications : — 



it be said that serpents are the natural food of mice, or that 

 the mouse hunts out for snakes to kill and eat them? bo*5 

 I consider the experiments of that eminent and excellent 

 philosopher in reference to his cerement of toads [described in 

 Nos. xxv. and xxvi. of Jameson's Journal], &c., with a view to 

 disprove the incontrovertible fact of living toads and lizards 

 having been found in cavities of the solid stone at considerable 

 depths, and without the slightest intercommunication between 

 their dormitory and the atmosphere, to be, if possible, still 

 more inconclusive- I have a toad in my possession, preserved 

 in spirit vof turpentine, taken from a cavity of the solid rock 

 upwards of r200 feet deep ; the space was quite sufficient to 

 contain the body of the animal, and the gentleman who pre- 

 sented the specimen to me saw it alive 48 hours after its 

 detachment from the rock. The whole of the scepticism on 

 this question arises from the difficulty of accounting for it ; 

 but a well-accredited fact must be believed, whether we can 

 account for it or not. This enquiry has much of the com- 

 plexion of those on the phenomenon of the fall of meteoric 

 stones. Who among us now disbelieves the latter well attested 

 and confirmed fact? and in the whole circle of science I know 

 not one of more difficult solution, or one which has more dis- 

 played the vagaries and eccentricities of the human intellect ; 

 such as, that they are lanched from a volcano in the moon 

 (Wilkin, &c), iron created in the air (Brande), a zone or 

 girdle of these whirling round the earth (Brewster), &c. I fear 

 I must say, that much of this scepticism proceeds from the 

 fact, that the phenomenon of living toads, &c, being found in 

 the core of the solid rock, disturbs the speculations and re- 

 veries of some geologists touching the age of our planet, and 

 the non-existence of animal life at an early period of its history. 

 The sepulture of the animal, there can be no doubt, was con- 

 temporaneous with the formation of the rock which entombs 

 it. The abundant evidence which I have collected on this 

 subject leaves no doubt on my mind whatever; and I have 

 lived to see too many geological hypotheses overturned, to be 

 led astray by the ignes fatui of geologists. Their facts are 

 delightful, valuable ; their reasoning (?) sometimes sets com- 

 mon sense at defiance, and not unfrequently wears an air of 

 the ludicrous. I am, Sir, yours, &c. — J. Murray. Jan. 20. 

 1833. [We add some instances of animals found incarcerated. 



— J-D.l fbne fli tioqq 



At Orgon, in France, a toad and two muscles have lately 

 been taken out of the bottom of a deep well, sunk in the 

 rock, and reopened after having been filled up for 150 years. 

 One of the muscles and the toad are still preserved alive in 



