22 Erwin Hinckley Barbour 



Their forms are magnificent ; their symmetry perfect ; their 

 organization beyond my comprehension. They are the con- 

 spicuous objects of the landscape. 



In the vertical section exposed in the canyon at Eagle Crag, 

 the range of Daemonelix proper is about forty to fifty 

 meters. Those at the bottom are distinctly smaller in size, 

 and are constructed on a more regular and uniform plan. 

 Those at the extreme top are larger in size, and are subject to 

 sudden and rather startling variations. At the bottom one 

 finds similarity and uniformity ; at the top, dissimilarity and 

 variation. However similar or diverse, they are subject to one 

 rule which has no known exception ; they are invariably up- 

 right. 



Almost invariably one or more transverse trunks or "rhiz- 

 omes" extend outward and upward obliquely from the lowest 

 or the lower whirls. There are two prominent forms: one with 

 an axis, one without; both of them marvels of precision and ex- 

 actness of build. Besides the constancy and accuracy of pitch 

 of the screw, there comes an element of great complexity ; the 

 helix tapers from bottom to top with such nicety that this or- 

 ganized instrument of precision would have to be sensitive to 

 differences not exceeding one millimeter for every 90^^ in its 

 course around the axis. 



Without attempting further description or discussion of this 

 point, the author submits certain figures which he believes will 

 carry out the foregoing idea by speaking tersely and emphat- 

 ically for themselves. (See Plates VI. and VII.) 



What naturalist will grant that any burrowing animal could 

 display such phenomenal exactness! 



Strict geometricians in nature are found among the plants 

 and lower animals. The spiral forms, so perfectly wrought in 

 these higher examples and less perfectly in the lower, seem- 

 ingly must be the result of heliotropism on the individual 



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