144 VIGNETTES FROM NATURE. 



barbels, which apparently fit them for a 

 marshy or muddy life. Probably they were 

 developed at a later date than the carps ; for, 

 while we find fossil cyprinoids abundantly in 

 the tertiary freshwater limestones of Oeningen 

 and Steinheim, in the lignites of Bonn and 

 Bilin, in the slates and shales of Sicily and 

 Sumatra, and even in the Idaho deposits of 

 North America, we find no fossil siluroids in 

 the European tertiaries at all, nor anywhere 

 nearer than the fresh-water strata of the 

 Malay Archipelago. Hence we may fairly 

 conclude that at a period when the carps were 

 already widely spread over the whole northern 

 hemisphere, the cat-fish were still mainly con- 

 fined to the neighbourhood of their original 

 tropical home. 



Nevertheless, the primitive siluroid had 

 some striking advantages on his side, which 

 have enabled his descendants to outstrip the 

 carps, considering their juniority in time, in 

 the race for the occupation of the fresh waters 

 of the world. Not only does their skeleton 



