red
sandstone of geologists; and was brought up, as I was told, some yards
from below the surface. I understood the Toad, and the two portions of
stone in which it was found inclosed, were deposited in some medical
museum at Birmingham. The animal would not have been discovered but for
an accident: the workmen were carting the stone away, and the block
containing the Toad happened to be placed on the top of a great load,
and accidentally fell from the cart to the ground, and, breaking by the
fall, brought to light the incarcerated reptile, which, I conclude, was
somewhat injured by the fall, as there was a fresh wound on one side of
the head, and it appeared to be blind of one eye. The Toad died, I was
informed, the second day after it was discovered, partly, in all
probability, in consequence of the injury. When I say the block of stone
was _solid_, this statement requires some qualification: the two parts
of the stone fitted together exactly, and quite close, except where the
cavity was in which the Toad lay; but from this cavity there was
evidently a flaw on one side towards the extremity, and a discolouring
of the substance of the sandstone, so that although the two portions
fitted together, they might not have been (on one side of the cavity)
very firmly united. This circumstance, perhaps, may detract from the
value of the example; nevertheless, it is unaccountable how the animal
could have got into the position in which it was found: it is not
conceivable, I think, that it should have been there ever since the
first formation of the rock, and there certainly appeared to be no means
by which it could have entered the rock in its present state, even
admitting (what we know to be the fact) that Toads have the power of
getting in and out of a very small orifice."

The author of the next account, signed "E. Peacock," is unknown to me;
and it does not appear whether he speaks from personal observation or
not. He says, "A few days ago, two labourers, employed at a stone quarry
at Frodingham, near Brigg, Lincolnshire, found, at a depth of five feet
below the surface of the ground, and between two blocks of stone (lias),
a living Toad: the interstice between the stones was filled with yellow
clay, and there did not appear the least possible aperture by which
anything could have passed."[99]

Even from remote India we have reports of the same phenomenon. A
correspondent from Serampore sends the _Zoologist_ the following:--