112 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



Hercules. Thus the ram's horns became the peculiar emblem of 



Ammon. ... 



The astronomical character of Ammon, as the ram^ m the signs of the 

 zodiac is of much later origin, not older than the sixth century before 

 Christ ; and in still later times, the Greeks regarded him as the pervading 

 spirit of the universe, and as the author of all nature. This was 

 probably an extension of his original attributes. In Jablonski's 

 " Pantheon " are numerous suggestions as to the derivation of the name. 

 The most probable seems to be from the Coptic Ammon or Amun, " to 

 feed sheep:" hence we may consider him as properly the god of a 

 Nomadic race, or as typical of the political union of some ancient 

 pastoral tribes.^'' The horns of Jupiter Ammon were first appropriated 

 by Alexander the Great, who, after his conquests, assumed the title of 

 Son of Ammon, and the emblem of the god. On the early coins of this 

 prince we find the head wearing a helmet ; in those of a later date the 

 ram's horns appear, but they are of a plain form; towards the close of 

 his reign are coins bearing horns with markings upon them ; but the 

 earliest coins with which we are acquainted, in which that peculiar kind 

 of lobed horn appears which most nearly resembles the chambered divi- 

 sions of the Ammonites, are those of one of his generals, Lysimachus, 

 to whom the kingdom of Thrace was allotted, and who fell (b. c. 282) 

 by the hands of his own subjects, excited against him by his unjust 

 execution of his son. 



Coin of Lysimachus, with the horn of Ammon. 



The term Ammonite was proposed, for this particular class of cepha- 

 lopodous mollusca possessed of chambered shells, coiled on the same plane 

 with the divisional septa of a figured and intricate pattern, by Lamarck, 

 in 181 1 ; and under this head he placed the* Turrilites, Baculites, and 

 other similar shells, which have subsequently, for obvious reasons, been 

 raised into distinct genera. 



Ammonites occur only in the fossil state, and are limited in their 

 vertical range in the series of rocks to the J urassic and Cretaceous for- 

 mations, first appearing in the early members of the one and disappearing 

 in t1\c later members of the other. As essential characters in dis- 

 tinguishing this genus from others of the same group, it may be added 



* Possibly " the great Pan," was a " geographical representative " (as modern 

 uaturalit^ts would say) of this great deity of the Ethiopians. 



