NOTES Ax\U QUEKIES. 
353 
mnch of the affair as to induce them to take tliat trouble. Had they believed that 
geologists and scientific men, to free themselves ft-om the trouble of attempting 
to account for the phenomenon, or fiom disinclination to abandon ideas and 
prejudices which exist in their minds, would prefer to deny the truth of the 
discovery entirely, they would have taken pahis to have had the place well ex- 
amined by practised observers — for the stones and everything connected ^vith the 
circumstance were perfectly accessible, and were visited by all who chose for 
several weeks afterwards. 
Scientific men, who have been referred to, seem to have great difficulty in this 
case. The facts so completely militate against all the theories of science in 
general, that rather than attempt to account for this or take any trouble to 
inquire further into the matter, they prefer to denounce the whole as a fabrication, 
and the discoverers impostors. Of course, such a conclusion as that would settle 
the v.liole affair most satisfactorily to their own minds ; but to those who, like 
myself^ are willing to believe in the veracity of the discoverers, some other 
solution is necessary ; and I confess I see less difficulty in considering the frog as 
co-eval with the freestone than in crediting the existence of " backs and cutters," 
or air holes and fissures of such a nature as to have allowed the said animal to 
have got into the cavity lately, because it is necessary to fix some probable or 
possible data for its finding its way to the place. Besides, the very fact of spawn 
(did such a "cutter" exist i-ight through every seam of coal, ironstone, freestone, 
&c.) not finding a crevice or cavity of some sort or another till a depth of 
ninety yards, in which the frog could be generated, appears to me to be far more 
improbable or impossible than the facts which geologists condemn as absurd. 
I shall be glad if tlie scientific world in generPvl would take up the consideration 
of this subject, and investigate into the case for themselves. I shall be happy to 
give or to obtain any further information that may be du-ected to yours, &c., 
R. B. Waedlaw Rajisat, WTiitehill. 
We have printed in full the above clearly-written account of Mr. R. B. W. 
Ramsay's miners, respecting the living frog found in the Dundonald Colliery, 
because it is a more definite notice of such a circumstance than has been usually 
given. 
Notwithstanding the natural improbability, not to say impossibility, of an 
animated being existing for myriads of years, without food or air, inclosed in solid 
stone, we constantly hear of frogs being so broken out of rocks free from cracks 
and fissures, and as constantly, under the idea that these frogs must be co-eval 
with the stone, we have in each case the circumstance tauntingly put to geologists 
as an insmnnouutable difficulty to deal with. 
All the fi-ogs hitherto so found inclosed in rocks, without any exception, 
have belonged to existing species, and of species living, too, at the surface in the 
very district of the supposed discovery. Now, the batrachian reptiles of the coal- 
measures belong to that peculiar class styled labyrinthodonts ; and, as no existing 
reptiJes are, by all the evidences of geology, of older date, at most, than the later 
Tertiaries, it follows that unless the so-called inclosed animals possess labyrin- 
thodont characters, they must be of recent birth. 
The whole question of whether ti-ogs can exist inclosed in solid substances and 
deprived of air, has been thoroughly gone into by Geologists. The late Dr. 
Buckland proved beyond doubt that ti-ogs woiild not exist for any considerable time 
inclosed in blocks of stone; but in his experiments, (see Gfo/..' Jourii., Vol. V., p. 
313. Ed. New I'hil Jounu, Vol. XIII., p. 26. Sillinuin's Ameiicaii Juki-ikiI, Vol. 
II , p. 272. his, 1834., Vol. X., p. 988,) it was evident that air was necessary for 
the fi-og's existence. They would live for some time inclosed in cells of porous 
materials, but in impervious cells they invariably died. 
The distinction, however, of extinct or recent form is cpiite sufiicient for the 
.settlement of the point ; and therefore where evidence is given, as in the instance 
above, of a fact, we have only to see if it can be reasonably accounted for, without 
attempting at all to invalidate the evidence, which, in the gcneralitv of these 
cases, we believe to be faithfully recorded up to a certain point of investigation. 
