352 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
NOTEIS AND QUEEIES. 
STATEMBNT RESPECTING A EHOG FOUND IN SOLID FREESTONE, 90 TARDS UNDER 
GROUND, AT DUNDONALD COLLIERY, IN FIFE. 
In the year 1856, two miners of the names of Hem-y Allen and David Mitchell, 
were employed by Mr. Nasmyth, the lessee of the Dundonald Coal-field, in 
working a seam of coal called the " Little Splint," about 45 fathoms from the 
surface. Between that seam and the surface are various seams of coal, freestone, 
shale, ironstone, and other usual strata, i^ome of these seams of coal have been 
worked in former times, and, of course, as these workings were abandoned for 
other parts of the mine, the old workings would get flooded, or, in mining-language, 
drowned. The strata other than the coal-seams are unworked, and, of course, exist 
in all their solidity at the present moment, one of them being a seam of ironstone 
not considered sufficiently valuable to be worked at present. Below the " Little 
Spint " coal-seam, on which the miners were employed, is a stratum of solid 
ft'eestone rock, 7 fathoms or 42 feet in thickness, and below that otlier coal-seams 
are known to exist, but these have not yet been worked, nor fully explored. 
The " Little Splint" coal is not a thick seam, and, as it was being worked, it was 
thought advisable to give more room for the haulage of the coalljy taking up a few 
feet of the freestone rock which lay below it. The miners above-mentioned were 
specially employed in this labour, and in blasting it to the required depth. In this 
latter operation, it is necessary to be careful in seeing whether there are any rents, 
fissures, or cracks — technically called " cutters" — of any kind in the rock, 
because, if there are, the powder will not have effect, and the miner's labour is lost. 
In this instance the miners state that the rock was peculiarly solid, and free from 
anything of the sort, being, in fact, as they termed it, a fine rock toVjiast. On one 
occasion they bored, as usual, the holes on the top of the rock to the accustomed 
depth ; having previously examined the solidity of the part where these were to be 
drilled, they put in the powder in the usual manner and fired it, retiring, of course, 
out of danger. As soon as the explosion had taken place, the miners went forward 
to take away the pieces which had been blown apart, when an animal jumped out 
of the rent which had been made by the explosion. It jumped a considerable 
distance, apparently with a strong convulsive effort, and then jumped again in 
another direction, and continued doing so three or four times in succession. 
Henry Allen was much alanned at the apparition, and ran away to call Charles 
Nasmyth, the overman of the underground workers, who immediately ran to the 
spot, fearing some accident had happened. On his arrival (only a few minutes 
afterwards) he found Mitchell examining the animal, which proved to be a frog, 
and which 1 y that time was almost dead, or at least was just expiring. A can of 
water, which the miners had for drinking, was there at the time, into this they put 
the frog ; they then examined the place whence it had jrnnped out, and discovered 
a < avity just below where they had inade the selection for placing the boring tools ; 
this cavity was ten inches long and about three inches or so in width and depth, 
while the rock was perfectly solid all round it. It was horizontal, as shown . in 
the aci ompanying sketch. There was no water in it, but it was slinry, apparently 
from the frog itself. There was a good deal of blackness about it as well as about 
the frog; hut that appeared attributable to the powder, as the frog afterwards became 
lighter in colour. Mr. Nasmyth, the lessee of the colliery, took the frog to 
Kirkaldy, where it was exhibited for some time, and, then hearing that I was 
making a collection of fossils found in the various coal-mines belonging to me, 
gave it to me, and it is now in my possession. 
The ab(;ve are the facts of the case as detailed to me by Henry Allen and 
Chai'les Nasmyth themselves, who are still at Dundonald Colliery, and whom 
I went expressly to questicm on the subject. I asked why they did not 
bring up the pieces of the rock ; they said they did not think of it, as it was their 
business to outjjut coal and not stime, and, thinking it an established fact, that 
pniwals had been found living surrounded by u solid mass, they did not think so 
