SCIENCE 



•NEW YOEK, FEBRUARY 19, 1893. 



NOTICE OF NEW GIGANTIC FOSSILS. 



While on a collecting trip the past summer in the Bad 

 Lands of north western Nebraska and south western South 

 Dakota my attention was called by Mr. Charles E. Holmes 



.J'\) 



Fig. 1. — Devil's Corkscrew In the collection of C. E. Holmes. Drawn from 

 nature. 



(Yale, '84) to some gigantic fossils abounding in the extreme 

 north-western corner of Nebraska. At that time I secured 

 cue large specimen, and noted and sketched several other 

 forms, intending to return later and complete the work in 

 that highly interesting field. 



These fossils seem altogether so remarkable and of such 

 imposing size and peculiarity of form, that I have felt great 

 hesitancy in offering any suggestions as to what they are or 

 in describing them at all ; and what I now venture to publish 

 is proposed tentatively, till I can return to this same spot 

 and complete the work cut short last season. Not less than 

 two genera and three species of the family were noted, and, 

 because of their similarity to immense corkscrews^ we dubbed 

 them "Devil's Corkscrews," and I offer for them the pro- 

 visional name Daimonelix. At least two gigantic and one 

 small species were observed . They are al most mathematically 

 exact and regular in form, and suggest a great three-inch 

 vine coiled with strict uniformity of pitch about a four or 

 flve-inch pole. However, the vine and pole, as the cut will 

 show, are just as much one as are the thread and screw which 

 they so strikingly resemble. At the bottom of all is a trans- 

 verse piece, indefinitely long, and about ten inches in diame- 

 ter, rendering the appearance of the whole like that of the 

 veritable corkscrew (See Fig. 1). 



Just what this great "rizome" is, remains to be learned. 

 •In the mean time, suffice it to say, that, as far as observed, 

 it consists invariably of a small obliqudy descentJ'ng por- 



tioD, and a large obliquely ascending one. The latter, as 

 shown by all that have been dug out, at least, seems to curve 

 upward gradually, and ultimately reach the surface. 



The great " underground " stem of my own specimen 

 (Fig. 2) was followed from the wall of a small butte some 

 ten feet straight into its interior, and then the work of fur- 

 ther excavating in rock so very soft and crumbling, yet so 

 peculiarly difficult to work, had to be abandoned. In the 

 two remaining forms especially noted, one gigantic, the other 

 small, the coil had the form and pitch of the common open 

 corkscrew (see Fig. 3). 



They covered an area of several square miles, where I saw 

 large numbers of them, all standing in the incompletely 

 lithifled sandstone as erect as so many titanic hop poles with 

 so many titanic vines coiled upon them. I estimated that 

 many could not be less than thirty or more feet in height; at 

 any rate, we frequently saw in the vertical walls of small 

 caiions or draws fifteen feet of exposed corkscrews, while an 

 unknown amount had been weathered from the top, and an 

 indefinite amount was still buried in the rocks below. Then, 



Fig 2. — a sketch of Devil's Corkscrew (In my own collection) as It appeared 

 when nearly dug out of the vertical bank. Top eroded away. Height 

 about five to six feet. 



again, I dug out the basal portion of one .-peciiaea fully 

 thirty feet below the surface, where the lip-euds of others 

 were exposed. These strange forms seem to be casts, no 

 structure being visible to the eye, or under the glass. The 

 gray matrix readily weathers away from the specimen, whicl 

 on fracture shows a spongy, friable, white wall, surroundir 

 a core or matrix ; though of chalky appearance, the wall 

 strictly silicious. 



