46 Vitality of Toads, fyc, 



observation of the inquisitive observer, is colitrary to all probability, 

 especially as the occurrence has always excited the most intense cu- 

 riosity, and more particularly as the opening must have been origin- 

 ally large enough to admit the body of the reptile. 



I have been led to make the foregoing reflections, partly, from ob- 

 serving the custom of taking the large pike from frozen ponds and 

 lakes in this country, and carrying them, in a frozen state, into other 

 ponds, for the sake of propagating their species, where they appear 

 to revive and to suffer no damage, except the loss of some of the 

 scales j likewise, by seeing snakes that have apparently been frozen 

 stiff, so that three or four inches of the tail have been broken off, 

 like an icicle, and yet the snakes have revived, on being exposed to 

 the warm air. 



Toads are often ploughed up, early in the spring, when no signs of 

 life appear, until after being exposed for some time to the warm air; 

 these facts appear to bear on the case in hand, and I might add a 

 number more of a similar character that have fallen under my obser- 

 vation. 



No person is more willing to pay homage to the distinguished char- 

 acter of Professor Buckland than myself, or has a more exalted opin- 

 ion of the great service he has done to science ; but I cannot forbear 

 (notwithstanding his deserved celebrity) to think that his experiments 

 are very inadequate to settle the question of the long continued vi- 

 tality of reptiles found in the different rock strata. 



I was in hopes that some more able pen than mine would have 

 discussed this subject in the Journal of Science, but as I find it is 

 not yet noticed, I have ventured to give you a sketch of my ideas 

 on this subject. 



P. S. Not long since, as a number of laborers were digging a 

 well in this town, and after penetrating five or six feet through the 

 gravel, they came to the hard pan, and entering it about five feet 

 more, they found a live toad about two thirds the size of a full 

 grown toad. It was enclosed in a cell somewhat larger than the 

 animal, but suited, in every way, to his shape. The discovery natu- 

 rally occasioned much surprise, and they examined the surrounding 

 materials and endeavored to put them into place, but they were so 

 broken by the pick-axe, that they found it impossible to put them 

 correctly together. The toad, on being exposed to the air, soon 

 began to move, but died within the space of twenty or thirty minutes 

 afterwards. 



