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LETTER XI. 
AMMONITES BACULITES HAMITES.... SCAPHITES 
TURRILITES. 
LXXVII. Ammonites. A discoidal, spiral, mutilocular shell, with 
turns contiguous, and all apparent on both sides : the chambers 
divided by sinuous septa, pierced by a siphunculus, difficult to be 
traced, and never passing through the middle of the septa. 
The shells of this genus are distinguishable from those of Nautilus, by 
the difficulty of detecting the siphunculus, but chiefly by their turns 
being all apparent on both sides. 
These are among the fossils, which, from their extraordinary forms, 
and the frequency with which they have been found, have particularly 
excited the curiosity of the vulgar ; to gratify which, superstition has 
lent its aid, by furnishing the tale of their being petrified snakes. Thus 
the nuns of Whitby 
“ told 
How, of thousand snakes, each one 
Was chang’d into a coil of stone, 
When holy Hilda prayed ; 
Themselves within their holy bound, 
Their stony folds had often found. 
Nor did Saint Cuthbert’s daughters* fail 
To vie with these in holy tale. 
* The Nuns of Lindisfarn, or of Holy Island Monastery 
