46 Vitality of Toads, &c. 
observation of the inquisitive observer, is contrary to all probability, 
especially as the occurrence has always excited the most intense cu- 
riosity, and more particularly as the opening must have been origin- 
ally large enough to admit the body of the reptile. 
I have been led to make the foregoing reflections, partly, | from ob- 
serving the custom of taking the large pike from frozen ponds and 
lakes in this country, and carrying them, in a frozen state, into other 
ponds, for the sake of propagating their species, where they appear 
to revive and to suffer no damage, except the loss of some of the 
scales; likewise, by seeing snakes that have apparently been frozen 
stiff, so that three or Tour inches of the tail have been broken off, 
like an icicle, and yet the snakes have revived, on peeing exposed to 
the warm air. 
Toads are often ploughed up, early in the spring, when no signs of 
life appear, until after being exposed for some time to the warm air; 
these facts appear to bear on the case in hand, and I might add a 
number more of a similar character that have fallen under my obser- 
vation. 
No person is more willing to pay homage to the distinguished char- 
acter of Professor Buckland than myself, or has a more exalted opin- 
ion of the great service he has done to science; but I cannot forbear 
(notwithstanding his deserved celebrity) to think that his experiments 
are very inadequate to settle the question of the long continued vi- 
tality of reptiles found in the different rock strata. 
I was in hopes that some more able pen than mine would have 
discussed this ‘subject i in the Journal of Science, but as I find it is 
not yet noticed, I have ventured to give you a sketch of my ideas 
on this subject. 
P.S. Not long since, as a number of laborers were digging a 
well in this town, and after penetrating five or six feet through the 
gravel, they came to the hard pan, and entering it about five feet 
more, they found a live toad about two thirds the size of a full 
grown toad. It was enclosed in a cell somewhat larger than the 
animal, but suited, in every way, to his shape. The discovery natu- 
rally occasioned much surprise, and they examined the surrounding 
materials and endeavored to put them into place,. but they were so 
broken by the pick-axe, that they found it impossible to put them 
correctly together. ‘The toad, on being exposed to the air, soon 
began to move, but died within the space of twenty or thirty minutes 
afterwards. 
