The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-02-23
The Petrifled Forest OF California.
From the Alta California.

Inc returned fOreSt OF California.
From the Alta California.
The "petrifed forest" discovered near
Calistoga last June, or then fist made
known to the general public, is one of
the wonders OF the State. The name az
adopted by common usage CONVEYS an
erroneous impression, for there is no
forest nor any petrified tree in a stand.
ing position. There are parts of dozen
petrlfied trees lying down and scattered
over an area OF 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 petrified branches or
leaves been found, nor more than twen-
ty feet OF the trunk Of any one tree.
The petrifcation is complete. All the
woody fibre has disappeared and has
been replaced by grayish capitalization
that seems to consist mainly of carbon
ate of lime. The grain of the wood is
distinctly preserved in appearance, and
also in the firmness of capitalization, for
the petriications split readily with the
grain, go that there is no difficulty in
getting long and straight splinters. The,
1
large and small splinters, which per-
son ignorant of the vicinity of petrifca-
tons would not suspect, at first sight,
to be of any material but ordinary
wood, discolored by the weather. Knot.
holes and fractures are found in tho
stone, and occasionally 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 aci oss transversly, and at
every break the end is not SO smooth az
if sawed, but more smooth than trunk 1
broken in its vegetable condition could
be. The wood had certainly turned to
stone, or been replaced by stone before
the trunk broke. But the pieces are
usually short, not more than two or
three feet long-and the stone is strong,
and piece OF 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 pet.
rified while upright, and were after
wards broken by falling
Mayor Snyder informs us that while
he was Superintendent of the Buena
Vista Vinicultural Company, piece Of
petrifed 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 adj
jacent vineyard of Mr.. Gundlach a
similar piece was found. From the
Buena Vista tract to the petrified forest,
the distance in direct line is probably
twenty-five miles, so that the petrifica-
ton of large trees and the peculiar
fractures are not confined to 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 out
side. The rings grow thinner Us 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 &C.
Cured. We are satisfied that there is
no good foundation for such an idea
and that the lizards had crawled into
cracks of these petrified trees within
few months, just as they do into crcvices
of any rock that gives them conve-
nj Of
100000 years, these little reptiles had
probably not celebrated more than one
anniversary of their birthday. The
petrifed forest is an important fact, and
the world will probably hear much
more Of it from learned men. 1t is
within two hundred yards of the Calls
toga 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.