The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1897-12-10
| !,

hardly be called cliff, says the Lon
don Standard. But while walking
along the margin Of Bracklesham bay
the observant passer-by will notice
here and there on the sand some gray
ish dusk-like objects, about the size Of
a slxpence or a shilling. They arc
CHECKER in the middle than at the edge,
toward which the surface often very
gently curves, sometimes showing a
slight fieXure, like a biscuit that has
warped a. little in the baking. A closer
inspection shows that these are not
chance forms, mere initiative sports
or nature as many such things were
called by our forefathers but are in a
FOSSIL organism. In some countries
Tor they are found over a large area OF
the old world--they run to a greater
size and are often quite as big as q
11Orln. being sometimes almost quar-
ter OF an inch thick at the central part.
The1r resemblance to coi1l-though
we must admit it is a very rough one
has obtained for them the name of
nummulites, Or money-stones. In those
larger specimens the internal struct-
ure is more easily seen than in such
as are picked up on the Sussex coast,
though in the latter it can be made out
by "a keen eye or by the use of a very
ordinary lens. A nummulite, when
split through the central plane of the
disk, reveals a structure resembling
Tudely that shown by section through
the middle Of nautilus, or more close
ny that or a fossil ammOnite, except
that the spiral takes a greater number
Of turns and the chambers are shorter
and much more numerous than in even
the latter shell. But In the nummu-
lite a section made at right angles
to this--follOwtng a curve Of longitude
instead Of the equator--wveals a very
different structure. The shell is built
OF several layers of chambers, one out
side another, each layer consisting of
a ring of rather crescentic or saddle
shaped chambers, connected top and
bottom by culving floors or flats, the
cells In which are extremely low.
These nummulites are some of the
largest members of a vast group of
organisms which have been from a re-
mote antiquity and still are very album
dant in the world. These organisms
are by no means made after one pat
tern. Some. though they are the ex-
ception, occupy houses with only a
single room; the majority have sever
al and not few an enormous num-
Der. The cells may be in a row, may
form a spiral or may be doubled up.
They may be placed in the more COM
plicated houses, OH one floor or on
more, but III a good many cases the
plan presents a resemblance to one of
the coiled-up mollusks, and particu-
larry to the nautilus or some of its
relations, With the difference, however.
that the shells in question are COM
monty very reduced copies-in many
cases hardly SO big as small pins
head. But their structure at first sight
seems. in many cases. even more COM
plicated than any OF the cephalopods,
as naturalists call this, the highest or
der of the mollusks: so that these lit
tie chambered shells, in the earlier
third OF the present century, were ac-
tually classed with the cephalopods.
But those little creatures come at the
very bottom OF the animal Kingdom,
and their test, as the hard part is call
ed in science, differs very much from
the shell OF mollusk. 1t is not ALWAYS
made of carbonate Of lime, though that
IS 50 in a great number OF cases. In
this grains OF sand are often imbedded
like pebbles in mortar, and not seldom
these make up the whole test, being
cemented together by some organic
material This test sometimes has hut
0ne opening. sometimes, however. lis
wallis are Tiddled by an enormous
number OF extremely minute pores, Us
u every chamber were provided with
hundreds OF tubes for ventilation or
Haliit OF perforated bricks. From this
stzReanres though 1t is not always pres
emit nzans;aaisss kaye named the order
10 wha6h these creatures belong the
FsOr2nDanafera. or hole-bearers, But.
tNt.1kRHR as the test and its structures
nnag he nothing can be simpler than
aA,e EGsmaa itself. 1t has neither mouth
4 mGE brain. nor nerves: neither head
nasr taal nm even st6 -: it is hardly
nasre ufsan u bit 0G lfSfSk ielly. Pro.
nm anisns OF aais extent through til,
artilas Adrpln essn ito neaa ga for som,
3 little dIiassnsse hs.aona dass cutter shell
AM ftllaase lialsy threads ass NOT eve.
r,rpa,fllaH with . stasn, aasd BIZ 6wO CONE
iii a.Iufam ltheS aiitisans. lin this WA,