FROGS. 135 



distance of a little more than half a mile from the lake, these sands begin to be mingled 

 with, and in some cases to be overlaid by what I think are evidently drift materials. 

 From thence to the summit of the elevation, upon which the University is located, the 

 drift becomes more and more characteristic, and for some distance around the University 

 the materials all evidently belong to the drift formation. 



" The circumstances to which I alluded in the beginning of the last paragraph, and which 

 give a deep interest to the geological formation upon which -the higher parts of the village 

 of Burlington are situated, are these : 



" 1st, It is asserted that living frogs have been here dug up at depths from five to eleven 

 feet in the solid earth. 2d, That parts of trees and other vegetables have been here found 

 imbedded in the solid earth at depths from ten to thirty feet below the surface. 



"Accounts of cases under the first of these heads may be found in Williams' History of 

 Vermont, page 479 of Vol. I. The author there states, as from his own observation, that 

 as Moses Catlin, Esq. was digging a well about 20 rods south of the University, where 

 J. D. Allen, Esq., now lives, the workmen, on the 12th of October, 1807, at the depth of 

 about five feet, dug up six frogs ; on the 13th two, and on the 14th five. These 

 last were about eleven feet below the surface of the ground. At another well, 80 

 rods northeast from the University, he states also that a single frog was dug up on the 

 26th of October at the depth of eleven feet. The frogs in these cases were in a hard 

 gravelly earth. When thrown out they were said to have exhibited their full powers of 

 life and activity. Several persons are said to have been present when some of the frogs 

 were dug up, and I have conversed with several persons who lived near the spots where 

 they were said to have been dug up, and who, although they did not see them dug out, 

 had no doubt with regard to statements which were made respecting them. Two of the 

 frogs mentioned by Dr. Williams were preserved in alcohol in the University museum, 

 where I frequently saw them when a member of the University, but they were destroyed . 

 when the building was burned in 1824. They belonged, if I may trust my recollection, 

 to the species Sana halecina, the leopard frog, which is at present the common frog in our 

 fields and meadows. In cases like those above mentioned, common observers, with the 

 most honest intentions,, are liable to be deceived, and it is hard for a naturalist to receive 

 such statements with confidence, unless they have been subjected to a naturalist's scrutiny. 



"2d. But whatever doubts may exist with regard to the exhumation of the living frogs, 

 there is none, in my own mind, in relation to the remains of vegetables which are said 

 to have been dug up in this vicinity. One of the most recent, as well as interesting 

 cases of this kind, occurred in 1835. In that year the Hon. Alvan Foote, who resides at 

 the head of Pearl Street, and about 40 rods directly north of the University, dug a well 

 near his house, of which he furnished me the following particulars : 



" The natural surface of the ground in the neighborhood of where the well was dug had 

 numerous large bowlders scattered over it, and was originally covered with a heavy growth 

 of timber. In digging, the first three or four feet below the soil he found loose gravel. 

 He then came to what is commonly called hard pan, which was composed of pebbles, 

 graA T el, sand and clay very solidly compacted together. This reached downward about 

 20 feet, and it was necessary to loosen it with a pickax in order to carry on the excavation. 

 At the depth of about 24 feet below the surface of the ground the earth became less solid 



