[ 33 2 ) 



admit muft reft upon what at mod will amount to a proba- 

 bility. 



We know with certainty, that a quadruped, fo large as a 

 mole, not only exifts, but finds its proper nourifhment under 

 ground, as alfo a confiderable number of infects. We likewife 

 know that the toad hath been frequently found at a confiderable 

 depth under the foil, inclofed with ftone almoft in contact with 

 its body. This fad indeed hath been much ridiculed by fome, and 

 chiefly becaufe it was fuppofed that the animal could not have 

 continued to exift, both for want of air and food, whilft in fuch 

 a fituation. We are not however to reject well-attefted accounts 

 of facts in Natural Hiftory, merely becaufe they happen to con- 

 tradict: what we generally obferve to be necefiary for the preferva- 

 tion of animal life ; and that able anatomift Mr. John Hunter, 

 F. R. S. having inclofed a toad between two itone flower pots for 

 more than 14 months, found it as lively as when firft con- 

 fined. 



But infects, tender as their bodies are, frequently penetrate into 

 the hardeft furfaces'; which labour they would not throw away, 

 did it not anfwer to them either for food or depofiting their eggs, 

 or young. 



Geoffroy informs us, that fome of the Teignes [tine<e] exca- 

 vate ftones to lay their larvae in k , and our own naturalift poet 

 Thomfon fays, 



fecure 



Within its winding citadel, the ftone 

 Holds multitudes. 



[fc. of Infects.] 



* There is a fpecies of ant in the Mauritius which will eat through 

 a trunk in a night. See a Voyage to that Ifland, in 1758. 

 k Account of Infects in the environs of Paris, vol. II. p. 178. 



1 Turnefort 



