New Order of Gigantic Fossils. 3 



Notwithstanding its inelegance, the name ' Devil's cork- 

 screw,' bestowed by the ranchmen, is appropriate and descrip- 

 tive, as the illustrations, or better still, the specimens them- 

 selves, will show ; and in proposing the name Daimonelix, it 

 is the author's intention to preserve their early name as far 

 as seems admissible. 



Colossal corkscrews they are, and they have been turned 

 in a lathe almost as true as that of the veritable corkscrew 

 which they so resemble. There is, however, this essential 

 difference between the two : screws generally turn in the 

 one conventional direction, but the fossil screw is right- 

 handed, or left-handed, indiscriminately, setting heliotropism 

 at variance. The name is still farther justified by the 

 immense transverse piece, analogous to the handle of an 

 actual corkscrew. These great transverse pieces, rhizomes 

 or underground stems, or whatever they are, project in all 

 directions out of the banks and bluffs like logs, with which 

 they have been confounded. Some noted were as large as 

 ordinary barrels, .others as large as hogsheads, or three feet 

 in diameter, that is as large through as old-time logs, or to 

 use a commonplace measuring-rod, as thick as ordinary house 

 doors are wide and several inches to spare. 



Two laws may be enunciated here. 



( 1 ) The fossil corkscrczv is invariably vertical. 



(2) The so-called rkiaome invariably cnrves rapidly upwards, 

 and extends outzvards an indefinite distance. 



All of this type seem cast in the same mould (Plates I., 

 II., III.). 



As for a second type, — the simple unsupported spiral, — 

 there is the same perpendicularity, but the basal or under- 

 ground portion of these is in many cases entirely wanting, 

 in others present, in still others present but extraordinarily 

 modified. (Figs. 15, 16, and 17, respectively.) 



Several of this type, as we dug downward, blended into the 

 sandstone matrix and became lost, or were cut off as abruptly 

 as if shorn by the same force that had robbed the top of its 

 glory. 



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