46 THE OLD RED SANDSTONE. 
the back; the mouth seems to have opened, as in many 
fishes, in the edge of the creature’s snout, where a line running 
along the back would bisect a line running along the belly ; 
but this part is less perfectly shown by my specimens than 
any other. The two arms, or paddles, are placed so far for- 
ward as to give the body a disproportionate and decapitated 
appearance. From the shoulder to the elbow, if I may em- 
ploy the terms, there is a swelling, muscular appearance, as 
in the human arm; the part below is flattened, so as to re- 
semble the blade of an oar, and terminates in a strong, sharp 
point. ‘The tail—the one leg on which, as exhibited in one 
of my specimens, the creature seems to stand —is of con- 
siderable length, more than equal to a third of the entire fig- 
ure, and of an angular form, the base representing the part 
attached to the body, and the apex its termination. It was 
covered with small tubercled, rhomboidal plates, like scales, 
(see Plate I., fig. 3;) and where the internal structure is 
shown, there are appearances of a vertebral column, with rib- 
like processes standing out ata sharp angle. The ichthyo- 
lite, in my larger specimens, does not much exceed seven 
inches in length ; and I despatched one to Agassiz, rather more 
than two years ago, whose extreme length did not exceed an 
inch. Such is a brief, and, I am afraid, imperfect sketch of 
a creature whose very type seems no longer to exist. *But 
for the purposes of the geologist, the descriptions of the 
graver far exceed those of the pen, and the accompanying 
prints will serve to supply all that may be found wanting in 
the text. Fig. 1, in Plate I., and fig. 2, in Plate Il., are both 
restorations — the first of the upper, and the second of the 
under, part of the creature. It may, however, encourage 
the confidence of the naturalist, who for the first time looks 
upon forms so strange, to be informed that Plate I., with iis 
