SEA-SCORPIONS 53 



famous work on fossil fishes ; and lie says that he was much 

 struck with the skill displayed by him in piecing together the 

 fragments of the huge Pterygotus. "Agassiz glanced over the 

 collection. One specimen especially caught his attention an 

 elegantly symmetrical one. His eye brightened as he contem- 

 plated it. ' I will tell you/ he said, turning to the company ' I 

 will tell you what these are the remains of a huge lobster.' He 

 arranged the specimens in the group before him with as much 

 ease as I have seen a young girl arranging the pieces of ivory 

 in an Indian puzzle. There is a homage due to supereminent 

 genius, which Nature spontaneously pays when there are no low 

 feelings of jealousy or envy to interfere with her operations; and 

 the reader may well believe that it was willingly rendered on this 

 occasion to the genius of Agassiz." Agassiz himself, previous to 

 this, had considered such fragments as he had seen to be the 

 remains of fishes. As we have said before, this creature was not 

 a true lobster; but Agassiz, when he expressed the opinion 

 just quoted, was not far off the mark, and did great service in 

 showing it to be a crustacean. There were no lobsters at 

 that early period of the world's history, and this creature, with 

 its long "jaw-feet" and powerful tail, was a near approach to a 

 king-crab on the one hand and scorpion on the other. If living 

 now, it would no doubt command a high price at Billingsgate; 

 but, then, it would be a dangerous thing to handle when alive, 

 and might be more troublesome to catch than our crabs or 

 lobsters. 



The front part of the body was entirely enveloped in a kind 

 of shield, called a carapace, bearing near the centre minute eyes, 

 which probably were useless, and at the corners two large com- 

 pound eyes, made up of numerous little lenses, such as we see 

 in the eye of a dragon-fly. This is clearly proved by certain 



