Embedded Reptiles. By the President. 491 



the former by Mr Evan Sanderson; also a silver penny of Edward 

 I., found by Mr E. H. Greet in the earth thrown up when the tank 

 was made for the Norham water- works. 



EMBEDDED REPTILES, luith special reference to the 

 discovery of a Live Frog in the Carboniferous Limestone 

 at Scremerstone. By F. M. Norman, Commander R. N., 

 President. (Plates I and II). Read at the Cornhill Meet- 

 ing, 29 May, 1884. 



Stories of the discovery of frogs and toads found embedded 

 in solid wood, stone, or coal, occasionally appear in newspapers ; 

 and many are to be found in local records, and in various works 

 on natural history. 



These excite our curiosity, awaken our interest, and tend to 

 indulge, maybe, any superstitious tendencies which we may 

 happen to possess ; but as the evidence is never quite conclusive 

 to show that the creatures were entirely enclosed in the substance, 

 and absolutely cut off from the possibility of air, water, and food 

 supply, or that they were not, some mystery seems still to sur- 

 round the question, which tends to deepen, rather than allay our 

 desire to have the whole subject fully and satisfactorily explained. 



Unfortunately, there is no record of a single instance where 

 the details are sufficiently authenticated for us to determine, 

 be^^ond all doubt, whether the confinement was absolute ; or 

 whether or not there existed some communication by hole, crack, or 

 crevice with the outer world. The mass out of which the animal 

 is liberated is broken up by workmen, or its position altered, or its 

 essential features obliterated, and thus an examination by a com- 

 petent observer of the exact original situation, which alone can be 

 accepted as satisfactory, is never made. 



The example, which recently came under notice in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Berwick— the subject of my Paper to day — is, I 

 confess, not exempt from the incomplete conditions which seem 

 to be inseparable from such discoveries. Still, I think that its 

 occurrence so near at hand, in the very centre of our district, is a 

 matter for congratulation ; for surely eveiy Naturalists' Club of 

 standing ought to possess, if no Megalosaurus, at least some 

 respectable reptile embedded in its annals, much more ought one 

 holding the honourable position of Parent Club. 



