128 OUR REPTILES. 



During the excavations which are being carried out under 

 the superintendence of Mr. James Yeal, of Dyke House 

 Quay, in connection with the Hartlepool Waterworks, the 

 workmen on Friday morning found a toad embedded in a 

 block of magnesian limestone, at a depth of twenty-five feet 

 from the surface of the earth, and eight feet from any spring- 

 water vein. The block of stone had been cut by a wedge, 

 and was being reduced by the workmen, when a pick split 

 open the cavity in which the toad had been incarcerated. 

 The cavity was no larger than its body, and presented the 

 appearance of being a cast of it. The toad's eyes shone with 

 unusual brilliancy, and it was full of vivacity on its libera- 

 tion. It appeared when first discovered desirous to perform 

 the process of respiration, but evidently experienced some 

 difficulty, and the only sign of success consisted of a 

 " barking " noise, which it continues invariably to make at 

 present on being touched. The toad is in the possession of 

 Mr. S. Homer, the president of the Natural History Society, 

 and continues in as lively a state as when found. On a 

 minute examination, its mouth is found to be completely 

 closed, and the barking noise it makes proceeds from its 

 nostrils. The claws of its fore feet are turned inwards, and 

 its hind ones are of extraordinary length, and unlike the 

 present English toad. The Rev. E. Taylor,, incumbent of 

 St. Hilda's Church, Hartlepool, who is an eminent local 

 geologist, gives it as his opinion, that the animal must be at 

 least 6,000 years old. This wonderful toad is to be placed 

 in its primary habitation, and will be added to the collection 

 in the Hartlepool Museum. The toad when first released 

 was of a pale colour and not readily distinguished from the 

 stone, but shortly after its colour grew darker until it became 

 a fine olive-brown. 



Professor Bell devoted some attention to this 

 question, and, nob only him but other naturalists, 

 without being convinced that such incarcerations 



