ITS STRUCTURE, BULK, AND ASPECT. 103 



BureJ twenty-three one-half inches in length ; and the fish to 

 which it belonged, if formed in the proportions of the Gly^ 

 tolepis, ten feet six inches ; and if in those of the Diplopierus^ 

 from twelve feet five to thirteen feet eight inches in length. 

 Did the shield still exist in its original state as a buckler of 

 tough, enamel-crusted bone, it might be converted into a 

 Highland target, nearly broad enough to cover the ample 

 chest of a Hob Koy or Allan M'Aulay, and strong enough to 

 dash aside the keenest broadsword. Another hyoid plate 

 found by Mr Dick measures sixteen one-half inches in breadth ; 

 and a cast in the British Museum, from one of the Russian 

 specimens of Professor Asmus (fig. b2)^ twenty-four inches. 

 The individual to which this last plate belonged must, if built 

 in the shorter proportions, have measured eighteen, and if 

 in the longer, twenty-three feet in length. The two hyoid 



Fig. 52. 



HYOID PLATE OF BUSSIAN ASTEROLEPIS. 



(One-twelfth the nat. size, linear.) 



plates of the specimen of Holoptychius in the British Museum 

 measui-e but four and a half inches along that transverse line 

 in which the Kussian Asterolepis measures two feet, and the 

 largest Thurso specimen sixteen inches and a half. The 

 maxillary bone of a cod-fish two and a half feet from snout 

 to tail measures three inches in length. One of the Russian 



