310 E. H. BARBOUR — NATURE AND PHYLOGENY OF DAEMONELIX. 



size and shape and in these alone do they differ. What describes one 

 virtually describes all. 



DAEMONELIX REGULAR. 



The explorer has reached now the beds of the Devil's corkscrews, those 

 magnificent spirals which were first found and described. Here a sheer 

 wall exposes to full view a section fully 40 to 45 meters from bottom to 

 top, with innumerable twisters at every level. It may not be amiss to 

 note in this connection that from a neighboring eminence the eye can 

 see in one view all that has been mentioned in ascending the canyon, 

 thus converting it into one continuous vertical section from 60 to 70 

 meters, or thereabouts, from bottom to top. The first general fact re- 

 specting the twisters which impresses the observer is that of the increas- 

 ing size, diversity, and complexity of the Devil's corkscrews from their 

 first occurrence below to their culmination above (see plate 34, figures 20, 

 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28). 



Those at the bottom, constructed as they are upon smaller and more 

 uniform lines, stand in bold contrast to those large and diversified forms, 

 subject to sudden and startling modifications and variations, found at 

 the top. 



However similar or diverse, there is no exception to the rule that they 

 are invariably upright, a fact which adds very apparent complexity to 

 this vexed question. 



There are two forms of the Devil's corkscrew, one with an axis, now 

 known to be rare, and one without. Both screws twist to the right or 

 left indiscriminately. Both are mathematical spirals, tapering from top 

 to bottom with great nicety, with such nicety, in fact, that these organ- 

 ized instruments of precision must have been sensitive to differences not 

 exceeding one millimeter for every 90 degrees in their course around the 

 real or imaginary axis. 



Whether the spirals are due to heliotropism in some plant or to the 

 intelligent act of some animal, no explanation thereof is adequate. Some 

 spirals end abruptly below ; others in one or more swellings or enlarge- 

 ments ; others in one, two, or three oblique, transverse trunks or 

 ' ; rhizomes." An occasional trunk unites two spirals, and all such are 

 dubbed " twin screws," the screws in each case being reversed — that is, 

 the one left-handed, the other right-handed; the one small, the other 

 large. Many forms noted are of so sensational an order as to preclude 

 them from present mention. As to size, the Devil's corkscrew generally 

 exceeds the height of a tall man, while the ordinary rhizome is about 

 the size of his body. 



Some specimens noted were simply gigantic. We have seen them a 



