MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS. 



5 



aid of a peg from one scale received into a socket in 

 the adjacent one. Fishes with this form of plate- 

 armour flourished not only in the 

 Coal period, but were also abun- 

 dant at that later date when the 

 blue Lias clays and limestones 

 now forming the cliffs of Whitby 

 and Lyme-Kegis were laid down 

 on the old sea-bottom. After 

 that, however, this type of armour 

 seems to have gradually gone out 

 of fashion, and the only fish in 

 which it now remains is the Gar- 

 pike of the American rivers, which 

 may thus be regarded as a kind 

 of mediaeval knight. The Stur- 

 geons, known to many of us chiefly 

 or entirely through that Epicurean 

 luxury caviare, present us with 

 another type of armour, which is 

 probably also a survival from 

 long past days. In these gigantic 

 fresh-water fishes the body is pro- 

 tected by several longitudinal rows 

 of large diamond - shaped bony 

 plates, which are not connected 

 with one another. Whether, how- 

 ever, this modification of plate- 

 armour is derived from a complete suit, and is thus 

 somewhat analogous to the Life- Guardsman's cuirass, 



