1895.] Is Daemonelix a Burrow ? 519 
The foregoing argument when summed up reads about as 
follows: Daemonelix is a burrow (false premise); burrows 
can not exist in water; therefore the Miocene of the Bad 
Lands are wind deposits (false conclusion). No valid argument 
can be based on the assumption of the point to be established 
and proved. 
A premise, as the name signifies, is something antecedently 
established or proved, therefore the argument is based on the 
false premise that Daemonelix is a burrow, which is not an 
established fact, but is the fact which he is to establish. If 
the premise is false, so is the conclusion, and we find it re- 
markably exemplified in this case. The startling and extra- 
ordinary conclusion is, that the well-known region of the 
Miocene Bad Lands is a wind deposit, and not a water deposit, 
as it is known the world over to be. Itisargument in a circle. 
It is not logical nor are the deductions geological. It is a pure 
assumption that Daemonelix is a burrow, but so easily is the 
mind led from pure assumptions to the conviction of their 
truth, that we find the author under consideration unhesita- 
tingly pronouncing the well-known Miocene Bad Lands an 
aérial deposit, and denying that it is aqueous. That such a 
mistake could ever have been made is to be explained away 
on the ground of undue haste. No naturalist could deliber- 
ately pronounce our Miocene Bad Lands anything but water 
deposits. 
Those famous Miocene beds are not wind deposits. They 
are not Loess. They are exactly what he says they are not, 
—water deposits. The Bad Lands are among the best known 
ung vor, und man sieht sehr häufig Wände von mehreren 100 Fuss Höhe von un- 
ten bis oben von den Schrauben, noch mehr aber von an “ Wurzelstécken ” er- 
füllt, welche überall an den Wänden hervorragen. 
Unter solchen Verhältnissen können aber diese nai umöglich 
Ablagerungen eines Binnensees sein, sondern wir müssen sie der Hauptsache nach 
für continentale Bildungen ansehen welche, wahrscheinlich grossentheils subeeris- 
chen Ursprungs in ähnliche Weise gebildet werden wie unser Löss, wie die 
Pampasformation und viele andere ähnliche Bildungen. 
Die Angabe des Verfassers, dass das Gestein, in welchem die Daimonelix vor- 
kommen, ein äusserst P, feiner Sandstein ist, stimmt mit dieser aman- 
sung sehr gut überein 
