2 Erwin H. Barbour, 



exposed for many feet, — in all of these could be seen a forest 

 of titanic poles, coiled around about with titanic vines ; all 

 standing in the half-lithified sandstone as erect as when they 

 flourished there. Some, however, coiled about an imagi- 

 nary axis with as great 



RLvii ^oUTH m-v Dakota Mi • . . . 



nicety and precision as 

 the others and stood quite 

 as erect. 



Among these ruins 

 where softer strata give 

 way first, the roofing 

 rocks stood as if sup- 

 ported by magnificent 

 spiral columns. Else- 

 where these columns 

 stood solitary and alone, 

 or, yielding to the never- 

 ending action of the ele- 

 ments, toppled over and 

 are going to decay. All 

 the combined geological 

 forces, chiefly the forgot- 

 ten raindrops, incessantly 

 excavate, and at the same 

 time disintegrate, these 

 organic columns. 



The numbers we saw in 

 a region circumscribed by 

 a few miles are indicative 

 of the countless numbers 

 that must abound in the 

 broad area of the several 

 hundred square miles in 

 which they are found. 

 Why so conspicuous a feature of the landscape has remained 

 unnoticed and unmentioned hitherto, is as mysterious as the 

 fossils themselves. 



Fig. I. — Map of Sioux County, Nebraska, 

 showing, in the shaded portion, the area of 

 the Daimonelix or fossil "corkscrew" beds. 

 Drawn from a map prepared by Judge S. 

 Barker, of Harrison. 



302 



