A Venerable Toad

In laying1 the foundation of a house in Whitesboroug-h sonie fifty yeara ao the workmen had occasion to split a large stone from the millstone grit, says the Detroit Free Press. It was perfectly close grained and compact. On opening It, however, they diseovered a l)laok or dark brown spherical mass. This they removed and turned over, when to their unbounded surprise it proved to le a toad, much largor than the common species and of a very dark color. It was perfectly torpiü. nut. alter conumi wim uic urau air it began to show signa of life and to hop about in a heavy and ponderous marnier. The workmen. being ignorant fellows, paid no attention to the toad, which hopped around the yard for several days and thun disappeared. They laid the stone in the wall so that the eavity remained in sight for many years. The story was subsequently investisrated by scientists, who, from the testimony of several witnesses wcre satisfied of its truth. The millstone grit is the oldest of the seeondary rocks, and must have been forrned many centuries before the delnge. lt was supposed that the toad mig-ht have grown from an egg depoaited tluouyh some minute cleavage in the rock, hut no cleavage conld be found, and the only expUmation possible is that the toad found its way into the grit wliile the latter was in aqueous solution, over four thousand j-ears afo; that grit hardened around it. and that it existed within the rock ever since. A somewhat similar cüscovery was made while the Erie canal was bcing excavated. At that time when digging through a ridge oí dry gravel the workmen caine upon several hundred living1 mollusea of the mya carios;i and raya purpurea families. They cooked and ate a number, and found thetn very palatable. These fossils wero taken at a depth of f orty-two feet from the surfaee of the earth.