THE. YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



5 



contradictor^'. But all the evidence and 

 all the experiments in the world cannot 

 prove to me that what I have seen was un- 

 trne. Yet I know that the first statement 

 I have to make about it, will be received 

 with a smile, as much as to say, " Oh! of 

 course not — that ends the matter." The 

 statement is, that I was not present when 

 it was exhumed. But I had better tell the 

 story from the beginning. The place was 

 a limestone quarry, where stone of a loose 

 (riable nature, was obtained ; not solid 

 enough for building purposes, it was being 

 burned for lime on the spot. On one 

 occasion, as the men were working in the 

 quarry, the exposed surface of the rock being 

 between twenty and thirty feet from the 

 surface, they came upon a toad securely 

 imbedded in the stone. Every has heard 

 of toads in stone, and the men were at once 

 eager and interested. The proprietor was 

 present, and was sent for to the spot, 

 and though, of course, the hole was broken 

 open, the greater portion of it remained 

 intact. This was carefully got out. and 

 though from the friable nature of the stone, 

 it was broken into two or three pieces, it 

 was easily put together to show the cavity. 

 The proprietor brought all away, and he 

 favoured me with a visit before he took 

 it home, I examined it very carefully. It 

 wa^ not more than one-fourth so large as a 

 full-grown toad. By this I mean that it 

 was about half as long and half as broad. 

 The skin was much paler in hue, though in 

 other respects it resembled that of the 

 common toad, but it was quite dry. There 

 was no exudation even when touched, but 

 the skin seemed to be slightly inflated and 

 then to collapse again. It made no attempt 

 to move, except when placed in an awkward 

 position, when it worked itself, more by 

 slight twisting and writhing, than by any 

 natural movement, to its normal position. 

 The eyes were of the usual colour, and 

 were very bright, but I could not satisfy 



myself that it had any sense of vision. In 

 the shade, or the full glare of the sun^ or 

 with a light held close to its eyes, it w^'s 

 quite undisturbed, and did not appeaf 'tb 

 notice any difference. On examining its 

 mouth I was surprised to find that there 

 was no opening. The skin of the lips 

 appeared to have grown together. Ther^ 

 was a suture or line, where the opening 

 should have been, but all were quite cIose_ 

 The nostrils, however, were open, and the 

 animal breathed at intervals. I do not 

 know of anything else worth naming. In 

 all other respects it was a toad. Small and 

 rather cadaverous looking, but an unmis- 

 takeable toad. It was exhibited in a shop 

 window in the town for some time, but its 

 change of habitation did not prove l^nQ- 

 ficial to its health, and spasmodic move- 

 ment of its limbs and jaws set in ; it 

 appeared to breathe with difficulty, and as 

 it inhaled, its jaws were twitched as if it 

 were struggling to open its mouth. I. 

 watched it for many an hour during the 

 last fortnight of its life, but I was not 

 present when it died. In its final struggles 

 it had ruptured the thin skin that had 

 formed over the opening of the mouth, and 

 this could now be noticed hanging in small 

 shreds from either jaw. I would have 

 liked to open it, to examine its stomach, 

 but it was sent to some one in connection 

 with some of the museums, and I never 

 could learn anything further about it. 

 Some, I suppose, will discredit the whole 

 account, others will think I have been 

 deceived. Some few, perhaps, will believe. 

 I, at any rate, have no doubt, whatever, 

 that the toad I speak of was dug out of the 

 solid rock, more than twenty feet below the 

 surface. How it got there, and how it lived 

 while there, I can form no idea. If it got 

 any nutriment at all it must have been by 

 absorption through the skin. Rain water 

 would percolate freely enough through the 

 stone, and might carry with it some slight 



