THE MYSTERY OF ENTOMBED FROGS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 571, 28 July 1909, Page 4

THE MYSTERY OF ENTOMBED FROGS.

; . Sir, —There; is v a very widely-spread and :■ genera] belief, at. any; rate- amongst lingliehspeaking peoples, that livo frogs havo been found entombed m. blocks of coal and of rock •when,, broken open,. and.':thus it!'has. ■ bceii . assumed that the occupants oftheeo gloomy cavities havo lived hermetically' ; closed up ' for countless ages of time. I; have recently read tjiat': scientificVm6n.'refuse to;:, accept these theories, 'and allege that 'none of these occurrences have stood the test of a rigid examination. But with'.' all r due . respcct to- ; scientific opihipn it is difficult to sweep aside j.witii a; Wave/of ;the hand - such v .a.;; widely- ' spread, aiiH'" 'deeply-rootedbelief. Mr, Eiyen Macrae, ;;imtil,recently. ,a ; wcllof this coast, . during a rcccnt." visit to this country, told nw, that' he had himself seen in' the office of: Sir William Mackonziels; factor, in tie north'of Scotland, a frog which' hod just been liberated from a block of coal ,at a depth of qix hundred feet. He said that its colour was black, and it appeared somewhat omaciated. , ■ V. : ~ -. But I have jiist-recently heard , of quite ;an ; interesting and ; mysterious occurrences in, connection with the question of the entombment of frogs.; from ; fiomo personal friends 'in the imm<3iato vicinity. of- Hunterville. My friondj Mr. A. G. Tompsonj of, Glenmorven, well-known along this; coastj ; his. son, Grant,'. and . .Charlie Stuart-Menteith were in si>litting a singularly .fresh and sound ngaire log, about' taroo feet 'in diameter, and Ito their great; astonishment, they found in a small cavity, in the centre of the. tree; two well-conditioned' i lively - frogs and a' huge black spider. The cavity,in' toeheart of the. log .in which these creatures; were .found was about fifteen inches in length' and three',, inches in diamotecr. .(Bib. whole matter appeared, so , surprising and mysterious that all those working • at the tree made a most.careful,and: rigid scrutiny,; but'could not discover any aperture whatever ; constituting connection between ■"'m'prisoned'creatures and the.atmosphere,of the outside world.; The two t frogs hp_pear to have' resided at 1 one end of : the • cavity,' and' the lively spider 1 at the other, but , all ; were vigorous arid hopped out of the way. I have hoard of an apparently well-authenticated) instance of a frog having boon released from a block of stone in Auckland, but will not further trespass upon your space, _ but I would hope to hear of similar instance's should they; exist from some of the students of naturo'in our. island community.—l am, 0t °'' R. C; BRUCE. July 26. i