152 NATURAL AND CIVIL 



AMPHIBIOUS BEPTILES. 



The Turtle, two species. Testiido. 

 Toad. liana. 

 Frog, five. Rana. 

 Lizard. Laccrta punctata- 

 Swift- Laccrta fiisciata. 



There are several accounts in natural histo- 

 ry, of toads being found in th.c hearts of trees, 

 and in solid rocks, wholly inclosed, and shut 

 up from the air, and all appearance of food ;. and 

 being taken alive, out of such situations. In 

 the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, there 

 is an account that in the year 1731, a toad 

 was found in the heart of an old oaJc 

 near Nantz, without anv visible entrance to its 

 habitation. From the size of the tree, it was 

 concluded, that the toad must have been confin- 

 ed in that situation, at least eighty or an hun- 

 dred years. ■^^ We have several instances in 

 Vermont, couallvextraordinarv. At Windsor, 

 a town joining to Connecticut river, in Septem- 

 ber, 1790, a living frog was dug up at the depth 

 of nine feet, from the surface of the earth. Ste- 

 phen Jacobs, Esq. fromi whom I have this ac- 

 count, informiS me, that the place where this 

 frog was found, was about half a mile from the^ 

 river, on the intervale lands, which are annually 

 overflowed by its waters. At Castleton, in the 

 year 1779, the inhabitants were engaged in 

 building a fort, near the centre of the tovvU. 

 Digging into the earth five or six feet below 

 the surface, they found many frogs, apparently 

 inactive, and supposed to be dead. Being ex- 



• Smellie's Pliilosophy of Natural History, p. I3a. 



