22 MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



of examining the stratification of this neighbourhood, and of so accurately 

 describing it as he has done in the ^^Outlines of the Geology of England 

 and Wales." The much-agitated question of living Toads being found in 

 blocks of stone, is by no means a new one in this town, as I have been 

 several times told by masons and labourers who reside here, and who have 

 collected fossils for me, that they have discovered them in this situation; 

 but I never had an account I could rely on better than the one I have 

 related. — Charles Faulkner, Museum, Deddington, August 22nd., 1851. 



A fact for Naturalists. — A singular circumstance, and calculated to shake 

 the popular belief on the subject, occurred during the present week. Mr. 

 Pigeon, a fish dealer. Great Yarmouth, purchased a quantity of Crabs, and 

 in examining them, one of them was found to be marked with certain initials 

 and also with the date ^^1845" on the shell. The general-received opinion 

 is that the Crab casts its shell every year. If these marks, therefore, were 

 affixed in the year assigned, this must be considered a satisfactory refutation 

 of ^the notion. The initials are "Y. 0. U. N.," "C, and B. A." The Crab 

 is still in the possession of Mr. Pigeon, who will be happy to shew it to 

 any one curious enough to desire to see it. — Norfolk News, May Slst., 1851. 



Note on a Sturgeon, (Acipenser sturio.) — August 15th., a Sturgeon six feet 



long, and weighing sixty pounds, was taken in a ground seine near West 



Looe, and forwarded to the London market. This fish is of very rare 

 occurrence here. — C. Jackson. 



Scolopendra eledrica. — While walking a few nights since in my garden here, 

 I picked up a specimen of this singular luminous insect. The light it emitted 

 was not confined, as in the Glow-worm, to one spot of the body, but proceeded 

 from different parts, seemingly at the insect's pleasure, sometimes even shining 

 in more than one place at once — a fact noticed by Kirby, in his work on 

 Entomology, who further describes it as being "a common insect in this country, 

 residing under clods of earth, and often visible at night in gardens." One 

 thing I observed in it as being very peculiar; on being placed in my hand, 

 it emitted from its side several drops, as it were, of phosphorescent light, 

 which continued shining for a few seconds. This was no doubt occasioned 

 by a bruise it had received the moment before I picked it up, which allowed 

 the luminous secretion to escape. — F. M. Burton, Lindum House, Lincoln, 

 October 20th., 1851. 



Some workmen, who were lately digging in a sort of bog in New Jersey, 

 came upon the bones of some enornaous animal. After a deal of labour, they 

 succeeded in exhuming a tusk measuring ten feet in length, and weighing one 

 hundred and sixty-five pounds; some teeth weighing over seven pounds each, 

 ten inches long, and twenty-eight in circumference; and a fore leg or shin bone, 

 measuring three feet six inches from the fetlock joint to the knee. From 

 these specimens we presume the remains to be those of some monster of the 

 Mastodon genus. — Evening Journal, October dth., 1851. 



