112 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
Hercules. Thus the rain's horns became the peculiar emblem of 
Ammon. 
The astronomical character of Ammon, as the ram in 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 
pi'obably 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 Amuu, " 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 horii of Ammnn. 
The terra Ammonite was proposed, for this particular class of cepha- 
lopodous moUusca possessed of chambered shells, coiled on the same plane 
with the divisional septa of a figured and intricate pattern, by Lamarck, 
in 1811; 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 Jurassic and Cretaceous for- 
mations, first appearing in the early members of the one and disappearing 
in the 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 
naturalists would say) of this great deity of the Ethiopians. 
