NUMMULITE. 383 
The Nummiilite is the only Genus 1 shall 
select on the present occasion from this Order. 
It is included in M. D'Orbigny's Section Naii- 
tiloids. 
Nummidites (PI. 44, Fig. 6, 7,) are so called 
from their resemblance to a piece of money, 
they vary in size from that of a crown piece to 
microscopic littleness ; and occupy an important 
place in the history of fossil shells, on account 
of the prodigious extent to which they are accu- 
mulated in the later members of the Secondary, 
and in many of the Tertiary strata. They are 
often piled on each other nearly in as close con- 
tact as the grains in a heap of corn. In this 
state they form a considerable portion of the 
entire bulk of many extensive mountains, e. g. 
in the Tertiary limestones of Verona and Monte 
Bolca, and in secondary strata of the Cretaceous 
formation in the Alps, Carpathians, and Pyre- 
nees. Some of the pyramids, and the Sphinx, 
of Egypt are composed of limestone loaded with 
Nummulites. 
It is impossible to see such mountain-masses 
of the remains of a single family of shells thus 
added to the solid materials of the globe, without 
recollecting that each individual shell once held 
an important place within the body of a living 
animal ; and thus recalling our imagination to 
those distant epochs when the waters of the 
ocean which then covered Europe were filled 
