786 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
any appreciable latitude of motion, or change of relative position 
to each other. 
Portions of this veil, with its contents were brought home, hop- 
ing that we might be able to follow the successive transformations 
of this embryo, and thereby determine the species; but although 
the water in which they were kept was frequently changed they 
very soon died. 
It was, of course, evident that nothing but a very large fish 
could lay so heavy a sheet of mucus, covering as it did an area 
of not less than from sixty to one hundred square feet, and I am in- 
formed that they are sometimes found even much larger than this. 
Allowing one hundred square feet of surface, and an average of 
thirty feet to the square inch, the sheet in question would con- 
tain four hundred and thirty-two thousand eggs, an estimate de- 
cidedly within the mark. 
When this specimen was first selected, we had overboard at the 
stern of our boat a trawl net about thirty feet in length, of a tan 
color trailing behind, and the veil was first seen floating near it, 
und so entirely similar in general appearance and color, as to re- 
main for some time without attracting special attention, till one 
end floated off from that of the net, creating the impression that 
the latter had been torn longitudinally into strips by some unknown 
accident. 
Finding myself unable to ascertain anything about the true 
character of this spawn I sent specimens of it to Mr. Alexander 
Agassiz, who informed me that it belonged to the goose fish, 
and that he had studied out the development of the species from 
its earliest stage of growth to maturity. —S. F. BAIRD. 
How Livine Toaps May Occur is Limestones.— It is well 
known to all naturalists that none of the existing species of ani- 
mals were in existence during either the paleozoic or mesozoic pe- 
riods, and hence the reported occurrence of frogs or toads in 4 
torpid but living: state, embedded in solid limestone strata, has 
not been generally credited by scientific men as worthy of serious 
consideration. Nevertheless it is not uncommon to hear persons 
assert that such occurrences have taken place within their own 
personal knowledge, and it seems hardly probable that such re- 
ports should arise in various and distant localities, without, some 
apparent foundation in fact. 
In the winter of 1853 the writer was informed by a gentleman 
