32 Erwin Hinckley Barbour 



strange arrangement of corkscrew "sheets," or layers, as our 

 party called them for lack of a better name. These strange 

 Daemonelix sheets, though somewhat undulatory, were hori- 

 zontally arranged one above the other. Masses of white 

 tubules of about two to three millimeters in thickness con- 

 nected these. The matted structure and the whole appearance 

 of these sheets was so precisely like Daemonelix, and seemed 

 to be so intimately associated with the highest corkscrews, that 

 there was no doubt in the minds of the party that they were 

 part and parcel of the same group. Microscopic sections have 

 completely substantiated and verified this belief. A glance at 

 Plate IX., Fig. 2, will serve a better purpose than attempted 

 descriptions. To the eye it looked as if great mats of plant 

 fibres floated off from and around the summits of closely 

 crowded spirals, much as Spirogyra, or pond scum, floats in 

 modern waters. This, according to our barometer, was the 

 highest point to which we traced Daemonelix. 



Several fossil corkscrews half exposed, and the Daemonelix 

 *' sheets " which seem related to them, may be seen in Plate 

 IX., Fig. 2, which gives a fair idea of their appearance in the 

 filed. 



POSSIBLE STEPS IN THE PHYLOGENY OF DAEMONELIX. 



As one ascends the canyon toward Eagle Crag, he has ex- 

 posed to view a continuous and nearly vertical section (see 

 Plate X.), the last thirty-five meters being an unbroken 

 wall. Deep down in the canyon one fails to find a trace of 

 Daemonelix. Ascending the canyon he comes successively upon 

 Daemonelix Fibres, Daemonelix Cakes, Daemonelix Balls, 

 Daemonelix Fingers, Daemonelix Irregular, and Daemonelix 

 Regular, as shown in Piate X. Though too startling and sen- 

 Bational for acceptance, the author cannot but cherish the be- 

 lief that this is a fundamental discovery in the study of 

 Daemonelix. 



112 



