26 Erwin Hinckley Barbour 



The recent discovery of a small locality in which all 

 specimens are hard and flinty and perfectly preserved, and in 

 which the missing parts of other specimens are present, prom- 

 ises to furnish final evidence as to the nature and affinities 

 of these fossils when the spot has been sufficiently explored. 



The top of the Daemouelix, whatever it may be, has not yet 

 been found, due to the fact, perhaps, that our only means of 

 finding these specimens is to hunt for their exposed and 

 weathered parts which protrude from the surface. 



That considerable amounts have beea weathered from the 

 upper whirls of each specimen is attested by the disintegrated 

 and broken fragments scattered there. 



Inasmuch as Daemonelix Regular occurs at every level 

 through a vertical range of thirty to forty meters, complete 

 specimens can be found by sufficient digging, and doubtless 

 will yet be found exposed on the surface. The matter of the so- 

 called "Rhizome" is still in doubt. Some spirals, to our sur- 

 prise, simply ended as if cut ofp, others ended in one, two, or 

 three spherical enlargements. (Plate VIIL, 1, 2.) 



Sometimes we find one, two, or three of these trunks running 

 out from one spiral. (Plate VIIL, Fig. 3.) Sometinies one 

 "rhizome" bears two ascending spirals, or, in other cases, one 

 ascending spiral at one end and a descending one at the other. 

 (Plate VIIL, Fig. 4) Though the contrary is the rule, yet an 

 occasional specimen is found without the customary transverse 

 trunk. 



Daemonelix Regular varies in size to a surprising degree. 

 We have found them in the bluffs along the Niobrara River a 

 full meter in diameter, and hence too clumsy for transporta- 

 tion. From this they descend to those not exceeding ten to 

 fifteen centimeters. The length of the ordinary " rhizome " is 

 two to three meters, although we have seen all lengths, up to 

 one finely preserved specimen, one-third meter in diameter and 



106 



