It is proper, however, to caution the reader against believing all that has been written about the longevity of Toads. Neither must implicit faith be given to the discovery of the living animal (Fig. 7) in the centre of stones. "That Toads, Frogs, and Newts, occasionally issue from stones broken in a quarry or in sinking wells, and even from coal-strata at the bottom of a mine," is true enough; but, as Dr. Buckland observes, "the evidence is never perfect to show that these Amphibians were entirely enclosed in a solid rock; no examination is made until the creature is discovered by the breaking of the mass in which it was contained, and then it is too late to ascertain whether there was any hole or crevice by which it might have entered." These considerations led Dr. Buckland to undertake certain experiments to test the fact. He caused blocks of coarse oölitic limestone and sandstone to be prepared with cells of various sizes, in which he enclosed Toads of different ages. The small Toads enclosed in the sandstone were found to die at the end of thirteen months; the same fate befell the larger ones during the second year: they were watched through the glass covers of their cells, and were never seen in a state of torpor, but at each successive examination they had become more meagre, until at last they were found dead. This was probably too severe a test for the poor creatures, the glass cover implying a degree of hardness and dryness not natural to half amphibious Toads. Moreover, it is certain that both Toads and Frogs possess a singular facility for concealing themselves in the smallest crevices of the earth, or in the smallest anfractuosities of stones placed in dark places.