188 EXISTENCK OF TOADS. 



is never perfect, to show that the reptiles were entirely enclosed in a solid 

 rock; no examination is ever made until the reptile is first discovered by 

 the breaking of the mass in which it was contained, and then it is too late 

 to ascertain, without carefully replacing every fragment, (and in no case 

 that I have seen reported has this ever been done,) whether or not there 

 was any hole or crevice by which the animal may have entered the cavity 

 from which it was extracted. Without previous examination, it is almost 

 impossible to prove that there was no such communication. In the case of 

 rocks near the surface of the earth, and in stone-quarries, reptiles find ready 

 admission to holes and fissures. We have a notorious example of this kind 

 in the Lizard found alive in a chalk-pit, and brought alive to the late Dr. 

 Clarke." The same author remarks, that the first effort of the young Toad, 

 as soon as it has left its tadpole state, and emerged from the water, 

 is to seek shelter in holes and crevices of rocks and trees. ''An individual 

 which, when young, may have entered a cavity by some very narrow aperture, 

 would find abundance of food by catching insects, which, like itself, seek 

 shelter within such cavities, and may have soon increased so much in bulk 

 as to render it impossible to go out again through the narrow aperture at 

 which it entered. A small hole of this kind is very likely to be overlooked 

 by common workmen, who are the only people whose operations on wood 

 and stone disclose cavities in the interior of such substances." The attention 

 of the discoverer is always directed more to the Toad than the minutia) of 

 the state of the cavity in which it was contained. 



Dr. Buckland's experiments, before referred to, were as follow: — In 

 November, 1825, he caused twelve circular cells to be prepared in a large 

 block of coarse oolitic limestone. Each cell was about one foot deep, and 

 five inches in diameter, and had a groove or shoulder at its upper margin, 

 fitted to receive a circular plate of glass, and a circular slate to pi'otect 

 the glass; the margin of the doable cover was closed round, and rendered 

 impenetrable to air and water, by a luting of soft clay. Another block of 

 compact siliceous sandstone, (Pennant grit, of the Bristol coal formation,) 

 was made to contain twelve smaller cells, each six inches deep and five inches 

 in diameter, and each under the same double cover as the first-mentioned 

 cells. A live Toad was placed in each of these twenty-four cells on November 

 26th., 1825, and the double cover of glass and slate was placed over each 

 of them, and cemented down by a luting of clay. Dr. Daubeny and Mr. 

 Dillwyn, who were present, ascertained and noted the weight of each Toad, 

 (they had all been imprisoned together in a cucumber frame, some of them 

 for two months previously,) as it was immersed. The largest weighed one 

 thousand one hundred and eighty-five grains; the smallest one hundred and 

 fifteen grains; and they were distributed equally, small and large, among the 

 limestone and sandstone cells. The blocks were bviried in the earth of Dr. 

 Buckland's garden, three feet deep. 



On December 10th., 1826, these blocks, which had remained unopened 



