Toad in a stone

STAFFORD. -- Some miners at work at the Rough Hills Colliery lately discovered in a solid piece of ironstone a small toad, which on exposal to the air exhibited symptoms of animation, and being put into water lived for about three weeks, growing to nearly double its size when first released from its confined cell, which was just large enough to contain its body. How long it had remained in this situation, or by what means it became embedded in the mineral formation, must be entirely matter of conjecture, as it was found at a depth of 150 feet from the surface of the earth, and in a part of the pit which had never before been excavated. Between the layer of ironstone which contained the animal, and that immediately over it, was a very thin stratum of a clayey substance.

From "The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal" for 1826.

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