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In prehistoric times the lords of creation were certain gigantic lizards, protected by massive armour-plates which could only be carried by a creature thirty to sixty feet long. Then they died, when neither earth, air, nor water could support them any longer. Such must be the end of the European nations, unless they learn wisdom.
Two or three rushes and the crayfish pauses, and then the agile black breaks its long, exquisitely sensitive and brittle antennae, deprived of which it becomes less capable of taking care of itself; or it may find its gorgeous armour-plates smashed with a stone or penetrated by a spear.
"`So, said I to myself, turning to the prettily-painted wall at my side, and giving it a slight tap, `the proverbial two-inch plank between me and death is here increased to somewhere about thirty inches. "In this soliloquy I referred to the Thunderer's armour-plates, of from ten to twelve inches thick, which are affixed to a timber backing of eighteen inches in two layers.
A fine big bird he is, no doubt; but there is no intrinsic beauty about him; on the contrary, there is something fantastic in his style and plumage. He has a way of drooping his wings as if they were armour-plates to shield him from a shot. The ornaments upon his head and beak are in the most awkward position.
Nor did he know that the glass blocks under the armour-plates of the crabs, which were placed in rubber frames to protect them from concussion above, were also guarded by steel netting from injury by small balls. Valiantly the boats beset the crabs, keeping up a constant fusillade, and endeavouring to throw grapnels over them.
Small boys mounted the step and peered into the wonder-box, into the mysteries of this neat death-machine, and poked grubby fingers into bullet-holes which had scored the armour-plates.
"I've hit men that hard before with my bare fist." "Did they survive?" "Surely." "What kind of armour-plates were they, in heaven's name?" Orde had recovered his balance and humour. "Just plain ordinary rivermen," said he with a laugh. "Gentlemen," struck in Gerald, "I want to introduce you to my friend." He performed the introductions.
And these men and women dressed in the dress of the Middle Ages, gorgeous perhaps in colour, but heavy, miserable, grotesque, nay, sometimes ludicrous in form; citizens in lumpish robes and long-tailed caps; ladies in stiff and foldless brocade hoops and stomachers; artizans in striped and close-adhering hose and egg-shaped padded jerkin; soldiers in lumbering armour-plates, ill-fitted over ill-fitting leather, a shapeless shell of iron, bulging out and angular, in which the body was buried as successfully as in the robes of the magistrates.
Her engines and hull were put into good condition, and outside of her was built another hull, composed of heavy steel armour-plates, and strongly braced by great transverse beams running through the ship. Still outside of this was placed an improved system of spring armour, much stronger and more effective than any which had yet been constructed.
It has but a single turret, and its guns throw six hundred pound shot, carrying three miles and a half. Her water-draught is about six feet more than that of the Cyclops and Hecate, and her armour-plates three inches thicker. Though she carries fewer guns, the Glatton is a much more powerful vessel than the other monitors.
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