bably it might have been accustomed for some
time to take refuge by day in this hole, from whence it would set out on
its nocturnal rambles, and probably 'not go home till morning;' that on
some occasion, 'when daylight did appear,' it returned to its accustomed
haunt, and there squatted, winking and puffing, after its night's
exploits, as toads are wont to do; that, on that luckless day, some
felled tree or trees were laid up against the fir-tree that contained
its abode, and that the tree or trees remained there till the bark
closed so as to prevent its escape. What makes this idea the more
probable is that the place where the fir-tree grew had, for probably
years, been used as a place to store felled timber, as it was used for
that purpose at the time I saw the Toad.

"After the discovery of this Toad in the fir-tree, I tried several
experiments on Toads, by burying them in closely-sealed flower-pots, at
a depth of nearly three feet. I much regret that I cannot find my notes
on the subject; but I remember perfectly the main facts of one. The Toad
was placed in a flower-pot, with another turned over it, and well
cemented together--the two holes in both pots being also closely
cemented up. It was buried between two and three feet deep in the
garden. At the end of three months I took it up, and weighed the Toad,
and found it had lost a very little in weight. This I did again at the
end of three months more; it was then quite lively, and had lost again
but little in weight. I replaced it as before, and on taking it up the
third time, I found the pots had, probably the cement not having been
dry when buried, slipped on one side, and the moisture had got in, and
consequently the poor Toad was dead, as well as buried! Now, surely if a
Toad could live _six months_ hermetically _sealed_ in a flower-pot,
without air or food--why not a much longer time?...--Believe me, yours
faithfully,

"J. PEMBERTON BARTLETT."

The Rev. W. J. Bree of Allesley, also an excellent zoologist, alluding
to some queries by Mr E. Newman, communicated the following facts:--"I
quite agree with you that the statements about Toads found in solid
stone are mostly very unsatisfactory. One instance of the kind I have
seen, as briefly stated, _Mag. Nat. Hist._, ix. 316. The Toad appeared
to me neither more nor less than our common species, although I
certainly did not examine it scientifically. The stone was the new