The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1906-04-19
FOSSIL C0RKSCREWS
QUEER FREAKS OF NATURE THAT
ABOUND IN NEBRASKA.

/ Gigantic Spirais Of Mineral Fash
Toned So 1IatbcnaticnIIy =s to Ea
Easily 'Iistahcn Il ;.ig>t t.IImcc
.'Or works of art.
Nobody knows with certainty what
/ Tie 80 call.i devil, c,-5.....,.,-.'' r.,.-
/ p, are. Thcy'ure foam l,y tens Of .r,u-
snds in Nebraska, mos parties. ny
in Sioux county. AMI s1a,r Of IT,: Il arc
AS much as forty feet in he,t,.t ..'-l)ut
/ counting the gigantic roots" presently
to he described Quartz is Tire sub
/ stance of which they are made. but
how they came to be imbeddcI. mum
bc"s Of them together, in the sandstone
cliffs Of that region is more than any
body can tell, unless, perhaps, one The
DRY, to be mentioned later, is to be ac-
ccptcd as correct
You are travelling. let us say, on
! horseback through that part of the
/ country, and, as often happens, You
see, standing out from the face of
sandstone cliff, gigantic spiral. If, as
biologists have proved. the sandstone
rock be Clipped away a corkScrcw
shaped thing of quartz is exposed TO
view, fashioned so mathematically as
to be easily mistaken at first glance
! for work of art The white spiral
may be free, as sculptor would say,
or, in other cases, may be tWincd about
Il sort of axis, as Il vine would run
around Il vertical pole
Somebody awhile ago gave to these
| spirals the name devils corllscrews"
for want of Il better and as expressive
| of the mystery of their origin. Scien-
| fists discussed them in vain. and many
| theories were formed in regard to them.
! There We're authorities who declared
they were fossil burrows eXcavated in
tertiary times by gophers of a huge
and extinct species. And, to confirm
! this notion, the bones of some burrow-
| ing animal were actually found imbed-
| ded in the substance of one of the
screws" This seemed to settle the
matter for awhile, until the controversy
was started again by the discovery of
| the osseous remains under like condi-
tons, of a small deer. Nobody could
assert that a deer was ever Il burrow-
! ing animal, and so that notion had To
| be abandoned.
Other theorists declared that the "fos-
sill twistcrS," as some folks called them,
represented the prehistoric boringS Of
| gigantic worms that lived in the very
| long ago Yet others suggested that
they were petrifcd vines. though it was
difficult to explain how or why the
poles" on which the alleged vines
! seemed in many cases to have been
trained had been 50 admirably pre-
served. or. for that matter. originally
erected
In the midst of so many contradictory
theories the problem seemed likely to
defy solution indefinitely. The one that
! held ont longest and gained most ad-
! hercnts was that of the extinct gophcrs
| 1t accounted for the "root'-a shape
! less appendaga often nearly as big as
! the "tWiSter' itself and attached to the
| lower end Of the latter-which Obvious
| ly, as it seemed, had been the nest Of
| the rodent animal, the "corkscrew' rep
resenting the spiral hole by which it
| made its way to the surface Of the
ground What could possibly be more
| easy to comprehend?
Professor f. H. Barbour. however.
has dcclared-and his decision is ac-
| ceptcd Professionally until somebody
| offers a better-that the CorkScrcWs are
of vegetable origin. They arc he as
| tbn fp-ciI of inr,f
water weeds Of gigantic size, which
| grew millions Of years ago on the bot
| tom Of Il vast sheet of water that GOV
cred all of Nebraska. These must have
! been the biggest aquatic plants that
| ever existed, and when the huge lake
that overlooked the region in question
| dried up the remains of many of the
| plants were left behind buried in the
| accumulated detritus at the bottom
In the course of time-ageS after the
| bottom Of the ancient lake had been
converted into solid rock-rivers pillow
ed their way through the land, cutting
| this way and that and exposing to the
view Of the modern Traveller on the
faces of the cliffs the fossil casts of the
| prehistoric water weeds just as they
stood when they grew hundreds of
| thousands and probably millions of
| years ago. Their tissues were replaced
as they decHyed by silica from the wa
| ter, particle by particle, and thus, as if
| by magical means, their lilieneSseS
have been preserved for the wonder
and admiration of the present surviv-
ors on the earth.
Such is the theory now pretty well
accepted by scientists in regard to the
| origin of the fossil corkscrews." Pos
| sibly it is not correct, but if otherwise
there is room for the exercise of any
| bodys Imagination in the consideration
Of this veritable romance of the an
cient history of the world.-New York
| Herald.
| Personal Beauty.
If either man or woman would realize