24 



KNOWLEDGE 



[December 2, 1889. 



and in the flat-topped, perpendicular- sided " buttes," or 

 outliers, that still rise above the wind-swept plains. 



We have not even yet exhausted the causes that may 

 give rise to rock-pinuaclos. The Finsterbach, near 

 ]3otzen in the Tyrol, flows down a steep-sided ravine about 

 200 yards across and 400 to 500 feet deep, excavated in a 

 glacial moraine of red mud, containing many large stones. 

 Eain beating down upon the banks of this ra^iue, wliich 

 slope at an angle of more than 30^, has washed away much 

 of the mud ; but each stone protects the earth beneath it, 

 and, in so doing, becomes the capstone of a mud-column. 

 Hundreds of these columns, or " earth-pillars," line the 

 flMnl,<j nf tlifi ra.vinp- nf everv heieht and asre. Nor is this 



( HI VI in] uTr 1- \\ t^T II \1HI 1 



case, drawn by Sir -T. F. W. Herschel in 1821. and de- 

 scribed by Lyell m 1S.57, altogether exceptional. Besides 

 other instances ui the same district and in the Valais, Dr. 

 Geikie has figured precisely the same thing cut out of a 

 conglomerate of Old Red Sandstone age, at Fochabers in 

 Strathspey, and on a mmiature scale it is a phenomenon 

 that can often be noticed. On the leeward of a gravel 

 bank the pebbles may often be seen cappmg miniature 

 pillars of sand, perhaps an inch or two in height. But 

 what signiiies the scale on which she operates ? Nature's 

 laws are as well exemplified in small things as m great ; 

 and here in the action of rain alone, cutting vertically, we 

 have yet one more of her manifold processes for the 

 manufacture of rock-pinnacles. 



MAIL-CLAD ANIMALS. 



By E. Lydekker, B.A. Cantab. 



AMONG ci%-iUzed nations throughout the world the 

 practice of protecting their fighting-men by coats 

 of mail, which prevailed so extensively duruig the 

 middle ages, has been entirely abandoned ; the 

 cuirass of the English Household Cavalry and 

 of the French Cuirassiers being a survival, or, as Natm-ahsts 

 would say, a rudiment, of the complete coat of mail, which 

 is retained more on accoimt of the smartness which it 



adds to the equipment than for any practical use as a 

 protection. The use of armour as a protection has, indeed, 

 been transferred from men's bodies to the sides of ships of 

 battle ; and even there it appears problematical whether the 

 ever-increasmg weight of the armour which is necessary to 

 keep pace with the development in the size and speed of 

 the missiles employed against it will not eventually, as was 

 the case with human armour, become so burdensome as to 

 lead to its abandonment. 



In the case of the coats of mail of the mediaeval warriors 



a gradual process of evolution had, indeed, brought them 



to a marvellous pitch of perfection at the time when they 



were once for all abandoned ; and the beauty of the suits of 



chain- and plate-armour, both as works 



of art and as admirable adaptations for 



their particular purpose, must at once 



■^ _ strike all who %-isit a gallery of ancient 



armour. 



If now we direct our attention to the 

 animal, as distinct from the Innnan, 

 world, and confine our survey to that 

 portion of it which includes the back- 

 boned, or, as Naturalists term them, the 

 vertebrate animals, we shall find in the 

 early periods of the earth's history a 

 great tendency in many groups to the 

 development of a coat of mail, fully as 

 beautiful, and fi-equently much more 

 efficient than that of the knights of old. 

 We shall find, moreover, that on the 

 whole vertebrate animals have, so to 

 speak, come to the conclusion that a coat 

 of mail is not altogether an advantage, 

 more especially among the higher forms, 

 in the struggle for existence ; and that a 

 better protection is to be found in the 

 swiftness of limbs for flight, or in the 

 length of teeth and talons for attack. 

 Still, however, there are certain groups 

 of animals which have jJreserved the 

 old f i-~hioned plan of hving and fighting the battle of life 

 111 uiiiiuui, although even some of these seem to be in two 

 mmds as to whether, after all, the plan of facing the world 

 with unprotected bodies is not really the best. 



In drawmg a parallel between human and animal armour 

 we must, however, remember always that the animal has 

 this inestimable advantage over man, that his armour is 

 grown upon his own body, and is in fact part and parcel of 

 himself, instead of having to be put on and ofl'. Again, 

 whereas the chief types of human armour may be 

 summarised imder the three forms of chain- scale- and 

 plate-armour, we find a much greater variety prevailing in 

 the coats of mail of animals. And here we would impress 

 upon the reader who has followed us thus far, how much 

 knowledge he would gain of these wonderful and frequently 

 very beautiful structures if he were to ^isit the Natural 

 History Museum at South Kensington, and inspect the 

 admirable collection of dift'erent types of these and other 

 marvellous animal structures arranged in the cases placed 

 in the bays on the left side of the great central hall. 



Our necessarily brief and hurried glance at some of the 

 more important types of animal armour will be best imder- 

 stoodifwe take the various groups in their natural sequence 

 of rank and their succession in geological time, commencing 

 with the lower and earlier forms. Our first glance will 

 then be directed towards the great class of fishes, of which 

 some of the earhest examples occur in the Old Red Sand- 

 stone of Scotland, which was laid down in lakes and rivers 

 asres before those forests flourished which formed the wood 



