Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-03-09
The Petrifled Forest Of California.

TIE "petrifed forest" discovered near
Calistoga last June, or then first made
known to the general public, is one of the
wonders of the State. The name adopted
by common usage conveys an erroneous
impression, for there is no forest nor any
Mortified tree in standing position. There
are parts of dozen petrified trees lying
down, and scattered over an area about
three hundred yards square. The largest
is five feet in diameter and about fifteen
feet long, with nothing to indicate what
became of the remainder of the tree. In
no case have any petrifed branches or
leaves been found, nor more than twenty
feet Of the trunk of any one tree. The
diaIneters of the trunks vary from one
foot to five feet, the majority being over
two feet The petrifcation is complete.
All the woody fibre has disappeared and
has been replaced by grayish crystalliza-
ton that seems to consist mainly Of car
Donate of lime. The grain of the wood is
distinctly preserved in appearance, and
also in the firmness of capitalization, for
the petrifcations split readily with the
grain, so that there is no difficulty in get
ting long and straight splinters. The
Ground near the trunks is covered with
large and small splinters, which person
IplDTdut VI bAlC VI tuC NlCiHity vi pCtltuCd-
tons. would not suspect, at first sight, to
he of any material but ordinary wood dis
coIored by the weather. Knot holes and
fractures are found in the stone, and occa-
sionally holes lined with transparent
CRYSTALS of carbonate of lime.
One of the most singular features of this
"forest" is that every stone trunk is
broken across transversely, and at every
break the ends not so smooth as if sawed,
but more smooth than trunk broken in
its vegetable condition could be. The
wood had certainly turned into stone, or
been replaced by stone before the trunk
broke But the pieces are usually sh 3rt,
Lot more than two or three feet long-and
the stone is strong, and piece twelve or
fifteen feet in length, supported at the
ends, would probably not break by its
own weight. We do not know that any
person has broken these trunks by design,
and we have no way of explaining the
fractures except by supposing that the
trunks were petritied while upright, and
were afterwards broken by falling
Major Snyder informs us that while he
was Superintendent of the Buena Vista
Vinicultural Company, piece of petrited
tree, about sixteen inches through and two
feet long, with square ends, was found
above the wine cellar, which is cut into
tufa and on the adjacent vineyard of MIR.
Gundlach a similar piece was found. From
the Buena Vista tract to the petrified for
est the distance, in direct line, is proba-
bly, twenty-five miles, SO that the petrifica-
ton of large trees and the peculiar frac-
lures are not confined to a small space
The tree was probably redwood. The
stone splits better than the common white
oak, and the grain is closer than some fir
which we have looked at and the trees
are too large for any other genus growing
in the neighborhood save the sequoia In
the largest tree we counted ten rings of
annual layers of wood within an inch.
near the heart, and twenty eight rings near
the outside. The rings grow thinner as
the diameter of the tree increases Several
weeks ago we copied an account of the
finding of two lizards in these petrifed
trees, the idea being conveyed that the
lizards had been surrounded by solid stone
ever since the petrification occurred We
are satisfied that there is no good founda-
ton for such an idea; and that the lizards
had crawled into cracks of these petrified
trees within few months, just as they
do into crevices of any rock that gives
them convenient shelter. Instead of
living for 100000 years, these little reptiles
had probably not celebrated more than one
anniversary of their birthday. The petri-
fed forest is an important fact, and the
world will probably hear much more of it
from learned men, 1t is within 200 yards
of the Calistoga and Santa Rosa stage
road, and tourists leaving here in the
morning can see all there is to see and be
back here by noon the next day.-AHa
California