90 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



highly venerable age regarding the lapse of time from a 

 purely human and interested point of view. 



We may now inquire whether or not the foregoing con- 

 siderations may serve to throw any light upon the tales of 

 the quarryman. The first point to which attention may be 

 directed is that involved in the statement that the amphibian 

 has been imprisoned in a solid rock. Much stress is usually 

 laid on the fact that the rock was solid ; this fact being held 

 to imply the great age, not to say antiquity, of the rock 

 and its supposed tenant The impartial observer, after an 

 examination of the evidence presented, will be inclined to 

 doubt greatly the justification for inserting the adjective 

 "solid;" for usually no evidence whatever is forthcoming 

 as to the state of the rock prior to its removal. No previous 

 examination of the rock is or can be made, from the cir- 

 cumstance that no interest can possibly attach to its con- 

 dition until its removal reveals the apparent wonder it 

 contained, in the shape of the live toad. And it is equally 

 important to note that we rarely, if ever, find mention of any 

 examination of the rock being made subsequently to the dis- 

 covery. Hence, a first and grave objection may be taken to 

 the validity of the supposition that the rock was solid, and 

 it may be fairly urged that on this supposition the whole 

 question turns and depends. For if the rock cannot be 

 proved to have been impermeable to and barred against 

 the entrance of living creatures, the objector may proceed 

 to show the possibility of the toad having gained admission, 

 under certain notable circumstances, to its prison-house. 



The frog or toad in its young state, and having just 

 entered upon its terrestrial life, is a small creature, which 

 could, with the utmost ease, wriggle into crevices and 

 crannies of a size which would almost preclude such aper- 

 tures being noticed at all. Gaining access to a roomier 

 crevice or nook within, and finding there a due supply of 

 air, along with a dietary consisting chiefly of insects, the 

 animal would grow with tolerable rapidity, and would in- 

 crease to such an extent that egress through its aperture 



