300 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
this morning, I came across the following extract in a revie\y of Pennant's British 
Zoology, then just published, with some remarks of Mr. How ; which passages, 
I think, have a valuable bearing on the questions raised by some of your corre- 
spondents about live toads and frogs in solid stone ; as the existence of such 
batrachians, inclosed in the sohd wood of trees, tends to strengthen your valuable 
arguments of the recent development of those animals in such situations. — Yours 
truly, F. S. A."—" To conclude the account (of the toad) with the marvellous, the 
animal is said to have often been found in the midst of solid rocks, and even in 
the centre of gi-owing trees, imprisoned in a small hollow, to which there was not 
the least adit or entrance ; how the animal breathed, or how it subsisted (sup- 
posing the possibility of its confinement), is past our comprehension. Plot's 
.solution of this phenomenon is fai- from satisfactoiy ; yet, as we have the great 
Bacon's authority for the fact, we do not entirely deny our assent to it. Besides, 
Plot's and Bacon's authority we can quote another for this fact, viz. Bradley in 
his ' Philosophical Account of the Works of Nature,' p. 164, where he says, 
' We have instances of toads that have been found in small cavities in the middle 
of large blocks of hard stone.' And I was once eye-witness of a toad which was 
sawed out of the centre or heart of the trunk of a large oak. At Catsgrove, near 
Reading, a spider was found in the middle of a solid tlint. It was alive, but died 
instantly on being exposed to the air. The cavity in which it was inclosed was 
as smooth as if polished, of an oval shape, about three-fourths of an inch in length, 
and aboil*- ' V , inch over. — D. H." 
EEVIEWS. 
Geological Map of Central Europe, compiled from the newest materials. By H. 
Bach. 
(Geologische Karte von Central Europe nach dem neuesten Malerialen bearbeitet. Von 
Heinrich Bach.) Stuttgart: E. Schweizerbach. London: Williams and 
Norgate. 1859. 
This is a very good chrome-lithographed map, 25 by 21 inches in size. It 
includes the gieater part of England and Wales (as high up as Newcastle, and as 
far westwardly as Whitehaven and Portland), and it reaches to Seeland and, 
Bernholm on the North of Europe ; to Dantzic, Cracow, and the Carpathians, 
on the East ; to Perugia, Toulon, and the Pyrenees, on the South ; and takes in 
Deux, Bordeaux, Nantes, and St. Malo, in its western border. The tertiaiy areas 
of London, Hants, Paris, Brussels, Bordeaux, Switzerland, and Vienna are recog- 
nised at a glance, and readily show their relation to the later Tertiaries of 
North Germany, Northern Italy, &c. on the one hand, and to the Secondaiy 
rocks on the other. So also the Jurassic area (after Oppel) and the older forma- 
tions, are clearly seen in their geological and physical relations to the other rocks, 
and to the present geography of England and Europe. The Gneissic plateau of 
Central France, and the porphyritic aieas of Thuringia and Bohemia, also stand 
well out, without interfering too strongly with the other colours. With the 
explanation of the colours, are succinct Geman, French, and Enghsh tables of 
the strata, so that this map will be available in the hands of any one wanting a 
good general geological map of Central Europe, portable, and of moderate price. 
