FOR RtOHT OBJECTS. 233 



tinent, many ages ago, was covorod by an ocean in nhicli ilie coral in- 

 sect made 



■ "the livinj: pile ascend 



The Mausoleum of its architects, 

 Still dying upwards as their labors closed. 

 And * * ■« * carried on the process 

 Which out or water brought forth solid rock." 



You frequently hear some people speak of a petrified snake. It is an 

 object that looks somewhat like a serpent co'iled up, but unfortunately you 

 can never see either head or tail, and then it must have been a very 

 small snake, for there is usually not more tlian one coil. What is it? 

 It is not a snake, but the fossilized remains of an extinct race of animals 

 that inhabited shells. When I say extinct^ I mean that they are not now 

 found in a living state. The whole family has perished, and we find 

 them only as fossils. They are called Ammonites, and derive this name 

 from the similarity which the larger species bear (for some are two feet 

 in diameter,) to the ram's horns which once adorned the head of Jupiter 

 Ammon, one of the chief gods of the ancient Egyptians. 



In some sections of our country, the people will show you not a few 

 petrified frogs. Now look at the fossil and you will see that it consists 

 of three lobes — that is, the back seems to be divided into three longitu- 

 dinal sections with shallow furrows (I am writing for the plain reader,) 

 running across. This is not observed in frogs. "Well, if it is not a 

 frog, pray. Sir, what is it r" "Be patient, and I will tell vou. It is a 

 trilolife.''^ "I'm as wise as I was before — and what is a triloMteP'' "A 

 trilobite is an animal of the crustaceous or crab family. They vary ex- 

 ceedingly in form and size; some species not exceeding half an inch, 

 while others are a foot in length. They show no traces of legs, hence 

 it is inferred that they possessed soft, perishable paddles. The whole 

 family are extinct and have been through untold ages. They have not 

 existed since the deposition of the coal strata ; no traces of their remains 

 having been discovered in rocks of a more recent period. Nearly sixty 

 species are known." 



Sometimes you will see sandstone hollowed out for a considerable 

 length, which looks very much as if an immense serpent had been sud- 

 denly squeezed into it when the stone was soft and left the impression 

 of its scales. This is thought by many people to have been really thus 

 occasioned. It is a great mistake. Instead of being an animal, it is of 

 vegetable origin. It is caused by the pressure on the soft sandstone, not 

 of a snake, but of the branch of a tree, the bark of which was covered 

 with scales very much like those of a serpent, and hence called Lrpido- 

 30 



