The statement that workmen splitting large blocks of stone in the quarries have seen a toad hop out of a cavity in the interior of the stone attracted a good deal of attention in the earlier half of last century. I do not know whether it can be traced to any great antiquity. I see no reason to doubt the truth of the statement in its simple form as given above. It has, I have no doubt, repeatedly happened--as letters to newspapers and in earlier days serious pamphlets record--that on splitting a block of stone the workmen engaged in the operation have seen a toad emerge from the broken mass. The fact is that the rocks in many stone quarries are "fissured" or cracked, so that a narrow space or "crack" extends through many feet of thickness of rock to the surface, which is covered by vegetable mould. Occasionally, owing to rain and flood, the mould is washed away, and some of it carried into the cracks or fissures in the rock. Occasionally a young toad is carried from the surface into such a fissure and far down its sides, and eventually lodges 20 feet or more in the thickness of the rock. The same circumstances which have carried the toad into the fissure carry in also from time to time small worms, grubs, insects, on which the toad may feed, but in any case the far-spreading though narrow fissure will hold plenty of air and moisture, and even without food a toad can remain alive for several months provided that the temperature is about that of a cool autumn day, its surface kept moist and the air also. Hence it is in accordance with recognized conditions that occasionally quarrymen should "get out" a block of stone deep below the surface in a stone quarry which is traversed by a fissure or has a small natural cavity in it (as limestone and other rocks often have) communicating with a fissure, and that when they break the stone and accidentally open the fissure or connected cavity a healthy living toad is found ensconced in it. The recent washing of clay and powdered stone into the fissure by rain and flood sometimes may hide its existence from the casual observation of the workmen, and the soft material washed in may even be found fitting closely to the toad's body. And thus it will appear that the toad is very closely embedded in the solid stone.