THE ARGONAUT.—THE NAUTILUS. a9 
some rocks being composed almost entirely of 
them. The name ammonite comes from a word 
meaning ram, as anciently these shells were 
thought to be ram’s horns, which, indeed, they 
do resemble; hence popularly called Cornua 
Ammonis, Jupiter Ammon, an Egyptian deity, 
being sometimes represented in old sculptures 
with head and horns of a ram, these latter and 
the shells bearing a fancied resemblance. 
“They have also been taken by the igno- 
rant for petrified snakes and called ‘serpent 
stones.’ The ignorant have been further de- 
luded by having these ‘serpent stones’ pre- 
sented to them with a finely carved snake’s 
head at one end of the coil, while a cunningly 
devised tradition accounted for the general ab- 
sence of the head upon the ground that a saint 
had first beheaded the reptiles and afterward 
changed them into stone. Sir Walter Scott 
weaves this legend into his poem entitled Mar- 
mion, when close around the fire 
“ Whitby’s nuns exulting told 
How, of thousand snakes, each one 
Was changed into a coil of stone, 
When holy Hilda prayed. 
And how 
‘Themselves, within their holy bound, 
Their stony folds had often found. 
