2458 Reptiles. 



Toad in Solid Wood. — " A correspondent residing at Serampore has sent us the 

 following account of a phenomenon not often to be seen in India I — Last Wednesday 

 (February 7th), on severing the branch of a tree, apparently of the tamarind species, 

 I found a toad in the centre of the wood, entirely excluded from light and air. The 

 appearance of the animal was rather extraordinary. The body seemed full of air 

 and the skin soft and puffy, and of a light yellowish colour, with the exception of the 

 extremities of the feet, which were hard and dark. The creature when exposed to 

 the air seemed rather uncomfortable, and drew in its head just like a turtle when 

 alarmed. It was thrown into a tank, when the water around, to the space of about a 

 foot on either side, became perfectly white, like milk. It jumped out of the water 

 immediately, apparently not liking the coldness. I did not have the opportunity of 

 observing it further, which I regret, as the animal got concealed in the long grass on 

 the side of the tank, and was thus lost. The general supposition as to the mode by 

 which animals get enclosed within trees is, their taking shelter in the cavity of a tree 

 when very young, and the growth of the tree filling up the cavity, and thus impri- 

 soning the animal. But this supposition, if true in the present case, makes the cir- 

 cumstance now related the more extraordinary. The tree is an old one, upwards of 

 fifty feet high, and having a trunk more than three feet in diameter ; and the height 

 from the ground at which the toad was found was about twelve feet. We must sup- 

 pose the toad to have got into the tree when within a foot from the ground : how 

 many years old then must the animal be ? " — ' Bombay Bi-monthly Times.' 



The Great Sea-Serpent. — " I see in your paper of the 30th December, a paragraph 

 in which a doubt is expressed of the authenticity of the account given by Captain 

 M'Quhae of the ' great sea-serpent.' When returning to India, in the year 1829, I 

 was standing on the poop of the Koyal Saxon, in conversation with Captain Petrie, 

 the commander of that ship. We were at a considerable distance south-west of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, in the usual track of vessels to this country, going rapidly along 

 (seven or eight knots) in fine smooth water : it was in the middle of the day, and the 

 other passengers were at lunch ; the man at the wheel, a steerage passenger, and 

 ourselves, being the only persons on the poop. Captain Petrie and myself at the 

 same instant were literally fixed in astonishment by the appearance, a short distance 

 ahead, of an animal of which no more generally correct description could be given 

 than that by Captain M'Quhae. It passed within thirty-five yards of the ship, without 

 altering its course in the least ; but as it came right abreast of us, it slowly turned its 

 head towards us. Apparently about one-third of the upper part of its body was above 

 water in nearly its whole length, and we could see the water curling up on its breath 

 as it moved along, but by what means it moved we could not perceive. We watched 

 it going astern with intense interest, until it had nearly disappeared, when my com- 

 panion, turning to me with a countenance expressive of the utmost astonishment, 

 exclaimed, ' Good heavens ! what that can be ? ' It was strange that we never thought 

 of calling the party engaged at luncheon to witness the extraordinary sight we had 

 seen ; but the fact is, we were so absorbed in it ourselves that we never spoke, and 

 scarcely moved, until it had nearly disappeared. Captain Petrie, a superior and most 

 intelligent man, has since perrshed in the exercise of his profession: of the fate of 

 the others then on deck I am ignorant, so the story rests on my own unsupported word, 

 but I pledge that word to its correctness. Professor Owen's supposition that the ani- 

 mal seen by the officers ofthe Dffidalus was a gigantic seal I believe to be incorrect, 

 because we saw this apparently similar creature in its whole length, with the exception 



