652 
VITALITY. 
extraordinary high flood, and then covered with a stratum of 
soil to the depth stated ; that this had been at a very distant 
period was to be inferred, not only by the surface being 
well grassed over, but by houses and plantations having been 
also erected upon it ; from it I soon extracted a number of 
live unios. 
I carried half-a-dozen away, and placed them on a shelf 
in my study, and about two years after I took them with me 
to New Zealand ; on arriving there, I mentioned the circum- 
stance to one of our members, and gave the shells to him, 
he appeared incredulous, but placed them on the wet soil by 
the side of the mill dam ; the next morning he came and told 
me, to his surprise he found that the shells had opened and the 
fish were quite alive, he therefore threw them into the water. 
When I was living in New South Wales there had been a 
long continued drought, and a large sheet of water, called 
Lake George, was so completely dried up, that the drays 
made a short cut through it, and the drivers dug holes by 
the roadside to obtain water, in them they frequently found 
large live fish encased in the dry soil, and doubtless numbers 
retained their vitality until the bed became again covered 
with water. 
Nor is this vitality confined to the inhabitants of fresh 
water, but extends to marine shell-fish as well. I buried a 
number in my garden, the more easily to get rid of the fish ; 
after being in the ground for about a month I disinterred 
them, and found, to my surprise, that most were still alive. 
My friend, already alluded to, said he had been commis- 
sioned by a great conchologist to send him a cask filled with 
shells just as they were taken from the rocks and shore, and 
that many of those were alive when they reached England. 
This tenacity of life also extends to trees. Seeds will 
remain in the soil for ages without losing the vital principle. 
Hazle-nuts have been dug up in the fens, which have grown 
when planted ; forests have been cut down, and succeeded 
by trees of different kinds to those which fell under the axe, 
but probably identical with those which preceded them, and 
in my garden, the sheltered sides of a melon pit were found. 
