The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-11-27
FOSSIL CORKSCREWS
QUEER FREAKS OF NATURE THAT
ABOUND IN NEBRASKA.


Easily Mistaken At Fret Glance
For Works of Art.
Nobody knows with certainty what
the so called devils corkscrews" real
sands in Nebras ska. most particularly
IN Sioux county. and some Of them are
as much as forty feet in height. without
counting the gigantic roots" presently
stance of which they are made. but
how they came to be irnbedded, num-
bers OF them together. in the sandstone
cliffs OF that region Is more than any
body can tell, unless. perhaps. one the
ory. to be mentioned later, is TO be ac-
cepted 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. a gigantic spiral. II. as
biologists have proved, the sandstone
rock be Clipped away corkscrew
shaped thing Of quartz is exposed 10
view, fashioned so automatically as
to be easily mistaken at first glance
for a work of art. The white spiral
may be free. as sculptor would say.
or, in other cases. may be twined about
a sort of axis. as vine would ruu
around vertical pole.
Somebody awhile ago gave to these
spirals the name devils corkscrews'
for want OF better and as expressive
-, D,.t,v S.ain
fists discussed them i'll vain. and many
theories We're formed in regard to them.
There We're authorities who declared
they were fossil burrows eXcavated in
tertiary times by gophers OF 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 q burrOw-
Ing animal, and so that notion had to
be abandoned.
Other theorists declared that the '.fos-
sill twisters." 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 petrifled vines, though 1t was
difficult to explain how or why the
poles on which the alleged vines
seemed in many cases to have been
trained had been SO 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 out longest and gained most ad-
herents was that Of the extinct gophers.
1t accounted for the ''root"-a shape
less appendage 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 1t
made its way to the surface Of the
ground. What could possibly be more
easy to comprehend?
Professor E. H. Barbour, however.
has declared-and his decision is &C
cepted Professionally until somebody
offers a better-that the corkscrews are
Of vegetable origin. They are. he as
serts, the fossil remains Of ancient
water weeds Of gigantic size. which
grew millions Of years ago on the bot
tom Of vast sheet Of water that COW
cred all Of Nebraska. These must have
been the biggest aquatic plants that
ever existed, and when the huge lake
that overfowed 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 plow
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 decayed by silica from the wa
ter, particle by particle, and thus, as if
by magical means, their likenesscs
have been preserved for the wonder
and admiral ton Of the present surviv-
Ors on the earth.
Such is the theory now pretty we'll
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
body's Imagination in the consideration
Of this veritable romance of the an
cient history Of the world.-New York
Herald.