the property of
R. B. Wardlaw Ramsay, Esq. of Whitehill), were engaged in taking out the
pavement of the seam coal, which was freestone, they discovered a cavity
in which a Frog was lying. On touching it the Frog jumped about for some
time, and a bucket of water being procured, it was put into it, and
taken to the surface. On reaching it, the animal was found to be dead.
It was at the depth of forty-five fathoms, or ninety yards from the
surface, in a perpendicular line of strata, consisting of alternate
layers of coal and freestone, with ironstone, and about four hundred
yards from the outcrop surface. The Frog seems to have much of the same
character as the present species. It is very attenuated, which cannot be
wondered at, considering its domicile for so many ages, its original
existence being of course considered contemporaneous with the formation
of the freestone rock in which it was contained."[104]

Now, again, we get the statement of a careful working naturalist, Mr
Thomas Clark of Halesleigh. He cannot, indeed, give personal authority
for what he records; but the confidence of such a man in his informant
is an element not without its value. "March 25, 1859. In the early part
of this month, two live Toads were dug out from the bottom of a bed of
stiff brick clay, in the neighbourhood of Bridgewater, at the depth of
fourteen feet from the surface of the ground; a third was killed by the
spade before they were observed. This bed of clay rests on peat, and the
Toads were found at the junction of the two beds, in a small domed
cavity, about the size of the crown of a man's hat. On being exposed to
the air, they uttered a squeaking cry, resembling that of a rat, but in
about a minute they seemed reconciled to their new destiny, and moved
freely about. They were kept in a jar for a few days, and then placed at
liberty in a garden, where I suppose they are still living. The living
ones were about two inches in length, but narrow in proportion, and of
a rather lighter colour than Toads usually are; the one which was killed
was very much larger. The clay under which they were buried had been
gradually dug out from the surface since about the beginning of the
year, but the last five feet of depth was not dug till the day on which
they were discovered. After about two feet of the surface, the clay is
very close and adhesive, and far too moist to admit of cracks being
formed in it, even in the driest summers."[105]

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