TOADS. 423 
yet inexplicable phenomenon is, that Toads have been 
found alive in the centre of large blocks of stone, where 
they must have subsisted without food and respiration for 
a number of years. A few facts we shall give for the 
amusement of the reader. In the year 1719, M. Hubert, 
professor of philosophy at Caen, was witness to a living 
Toad being taken from the solid trunk of an elm-tree. 
It was lodged exactly in the centre, and filled the whole 
of the space that contained it. The tree was in every 
other respect firm and sound. Dr. Bradley saw a Toad 
taken from the trunk of a large oak. In the year 1733, 
a live Toad was discovered by M. Grayburg, in a hard 
and solid block of stone, which had been dug up in a 
quarry in Gothland. On being touched with a stick upon 
the head, he informs us, it contracted its eyes, as if asleep ; 
and, when the stick was moved, it gradually opened them. 
Its mouth had no aperture, but was closed round by a 
yellowish skin. On being pressed with the stick on the 
back, a small quantity of clear water issued from it be- 
hind, and it immediately died. A living Toad was found 
in a block of marble at Chillingham castle, belonging to 
Lord Tankerville, near Alnwick, in Northumberland. 
With regard to the length of life in these animals, it is 
impossible to state any thing decisive, as several facts prove 
that some of them have been gifted with astonishing lon- 
gevity. 
A correspondent of Mr. Pennant's supplied him with 
some curious particulars respecting a domestic Toad, 
which continued in the same place for thirty-six years. 
It frequented the steps before the hall-door of a gentle- 
man's house in Devonshire. By being constantly fed, it 
was rendered so tame as always to come out of its hole in 
an evening when a candle was brought, and to look up as 
if expecting to be carried into the house, where it was 
frequently fed with insects. An animal of this description 
being so much noticed and befriended, excited the curi- 
