CHAP. ix. A HOLOPTYCHIUS FOUND. 101 



haps the knob and the rib-like processes were separated 

 from the centre plate, and washed away before it was 

 buried, for, to my certain knowledge, they were originally 

 solidly united in one piece, and the knob could not even 

 have been wrenched away without leaving a mark 



" Besides, in these two pieces of Coccosteus cuspidatus 

 alluded to, there is a knot-like bone, with a long stalk 

 at the lower end, and nothing of the same kind in the 

 piece now sent. If this piece, strange as it is, was in 

 reality the lower half of a Coccosteus, Mr. Miller must 

 correct his description when he speaks of it as one plate 

 or piece, save the two small side pieces that ' fill up the 

 angle.' Mr. Miller knows what I mean. 



" I am pretty confident that I have got something 

 new to geologists, and for this reason rude as my 

 sketch of the fish jaws is Mr. Miller must know them 

 to be the remains of a Holoptychius." 



Five days later (15th March) Mr. Dick again writes 

 to Mr. Miller : " Not a moment shall be lost in sending 

 you by steamer those curious Old Bones. At the same 

 time, I cannot send you one of them the largest piece 

 as it was found ; but I will send you a cast of it a 

 stucco likeness of what the huge buckler was when it 

 lay in the bed of the rock, after I had brought it to 

 light after its long entombment." 



The fossil fish found by Dick was indeed a discovery. 

 The frontal plates of the Holoptychius measured full 

 sixteen inches across, and from the nape of the neck to 

 a little above the place of the eyes, full eighteen ; while 

 a single plate belonging to the lower part of the head 



