56 TOADS. 



well remarked, that " Every kind of beasts, and of birds, and 

 of serpents, and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been 

 tamed of mankind." (St James, chap. iii. 7.) 



in December, 1826. All the toads in the small cells of compact sand- 

 stone were dead, and their bodies so much decayed as to prove that they 

 had been dead for some months. The greater number of the toads in the 

 larger cells of porous limestone were alive; but they were all a good deal 

 emaciated, except two, which had increased in weight, the one from 

 one thousand one hundred and eighty-five grains to one thousand two 

 hundred and sixty-five, the other from nine hundred and eighty-eight 

 to one thousand one hundred and sixteen. With regard to these two, 

 Dr Buckland thinks they had both been nourished by insects, which 

 had got into the one cell through a crack found in the glass cover, and 

 into the other probably by some small aperture in the luting, which was 

 not carefully examined. No insects were found in either cell, but an 

 assemblage of insects was found on the outside of another glass, and 

 a number within one of the cells whose cover was cracked, and where the 

 animal was dead. Of the emaciated toads, one had diminished in weight 

 from nine hundred and twenty-four grains to six hundred and ninety- 

 eight, and one from nine hundred and thirty-six to six hundred and fifty- 

 two. " The results of the experiments," says Dr Buckland, " amount 

 to this : All the toads, both large and small, enclosed in the sandstone, 

 and the small toads enclosed in the limestone also, were dead at the end 

 of thirteen months. Before the expiration of the second year, all the 

 large 'ones also were dead. These were examined several times, during 

 the second year, through the glass covers of the cells, but without 

 removing them to admit air. They appeared always awake, with their 

 eyes open, and never in a state of torpor, their meagreness increasing at 

 each interval, until at length they were found dead. Those which had 

 gained an increase of weight at the end of the first year, and were then 

 carefully closed up again, were emaciated and dead before the expiration 

 of the second year." Four toads, enclosed in cavities cut in the trunk of 

 an apple tree, and closed up by plugs so tightly as to exclude insects, and 

 " apparently air," were found dead at the end of a year. 



The phenomena, then, of live toads enclosed in rocks, he explains in 

 this way. The young toad, as soon as it leaves its tadpole state, and 

 emerges from the water, seeks shelter in holes and crevices of rocks and 

 trees. One may thus enter a small opening in a rock, and when there 

 rind food, by catching the insects which seek shelter in the same retreat ; 

 and its increase of size may prevent it from getting out again by the same 

 opening. It is probable that there are some small apertures in all the 

 stones m which toads are found, though they escape the notice of the 

 workmen, who have no motive to induce them to make a narrow exami- 

 nation. In other cases, there may have been an opening, which had 

 been closed up, after the animal was immured, by stalactitic incrustation. 

 Deprived of food and air, it might fall into that state of torpor, or sus- 

 pended animation, to which certain animals are subject in winter ; but 

 how long it might continue in this state is uncertain. 



The Rev. George Young, in his Geological Survey of the Yorkshire 

 Coast, second edition, 1828, mentions several recent instances of living 

 toads having been found within solid blocks of sandstone. " We are the 



