94 GAR FISHES, OR GANOIDS 



were not the only ones which existed in those early days. 

 The same rocks have yielded to science the remains of lung- 

 fishes, sharks and sturgeons; but the so-called "bony fishes" 

 of to-day were undoubtedly of later development than the 

 foregoing. 



Our two Gar fishes are therefore to be regarded as living 

 relics of the Devonian age, or "Age of Fishes." There are 

 others; but for an introduction to them, as well as the fossil 

 forms, the reader is referred to Le Conte's "Geology." 



THE LONG-NOSED GAR PiKE 1 is the species which is near- 

 est at hand, and most accessible to teachers and students. It 

 is found in the Great Lakes, and in large streams generally 

 from New Jersey to Mexico, and northward in the Mississippi 

 Valley to Minnesota. It is frequently called the Billfish 

 and the Gar. It is said to be destructive to the young of 

 other fishes, but Doctor Goode declares that fish remains are 

 "rarely found in its stomach." Its flesh is unfit for food, and, 

 except to educators, the fish is valueless. It is said to attain 

 a maximum length of from 5 to 6 feet, but specimens exceeding 

 3 feet are very rare, and the majority are certainly under 

 that length. 



The armor of this fish is more perfect than any plate 

 armor that man could make for it. It consists of diagonal 

 whorls of solid and highly polished plates of bone, each 

 divided into scale-like sections, and so hinged together that 

 while fully protected the fish has abundant freedom of move- 

 ment. The dried skin of a Gar Pike is as hard and unyielding 

 as a cylinder of sheet iron. 



1 Lep-i-dos'te-us os'se-us. 



