THE GREAT FISH-LIZARDS 61 



breast-bone of a lizard, the paddles of a whale or dolphin, and the 

 vertebrae of a fish ! No wonder that naturalists and palaeonto- 

 logists, whose realm is the natural history of the past, were obliged 

 to make a new division, or order, of reptiles to accommodate the 

 fish-lizard. It is obvious that a creature with such very " mixed " 

 relationships would be out of place in any of the four orders into 

 which living reptiles, as represented by turtles, snakes, lizards, 

 and crocodiles, are divided. Here is what our late friend Professor 

 Blackie said of the Ichthyosaurus 



" Behold, a strange monster our wonder engages ! 



If dolphin or lizard your wit may defy. 

 Some thirty feet long, on the shore of Lyme-Regis, 



With a saw for a jaw, and a big staring eye. 

 A fish or a lizard ? An ichthyosaurus, 



With a big goggle eye, and a very small brain, 

 And paddles like mill-wheels in chattering chorus, 



Smiting tremendoiis the dread-sounding main." 



A glance at our restoration, Plate IV., will show that the fish- 

 lizard was a powerful monster, well endowed with the means of 

 propelling itself rapidly through the water as it sought its living 

 prey, to seize it within those cruel jaws. The long and powerful 

 tail was its chief organ of propulsion; but the paddles would 

 also be useful for this purpose, as well as for guiding its course. 

 The pointed head and generally tapering body suggests a capa- 

 bility of rapid movement through the water ; and since we know 

 for certain that it fed on fishes, this conclusion is confirmed, for 

 fishes are not easily caught now, and most probably were not 

 easily caught ages ago. 



The personal history of the fish-lizard, merely as a fossil or 

 " remain " is interesting ; so much so, that we may perhaps be 

 allowed to relate the circumstances of his debut before the 

 scientific world, in the days of the ever-illustrious Cuvier, to 



