The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-05-16
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.

Mr.. WYMAN Dixon, English engineer
in the employ of the Egyptian Govern
ment, announces the discovery of a re-
markable petriied forest, located in the
Libyan Desert, about three hours jour
ney from the Great Pyramid. From
Mr.. Dixon's narrative, as recently pub
lished in Nature, we condense the fol-
lowing facts regarding this natural Won
der: On the western horizon of the
Libvan Desert, and in full view, from
the summit, of the grand Pyramid of
Gheszeh, though removed from the
route of desert-traveIIers, there rises a
conicaI hill, which has long been re
garded as the ruins of a pyramid. A
nearer survey of this supposed ruin de-
termines it to be the cOnical end of q
prism-shaped hill, stretching westward,
and standing boldly out of the desert
plain. It is upon the sides, and at the
base of this hill, that the petrifed for
est is located. Descending the steep
northern slope, the travellers, Messrs.
Dixon and Grant, discovered, near the
spot chosen for their camp, three large
stone trees lying PROSTATE on the sand.
The largest of these was fifty-one feet
in length, and three feet six inches in
diameter at its widest end, and two feet
at its smallest. They were branching
exogenoUs trees, apparently a species of
pine. Passing up the wady," or "a
vine, to the north of the hill, the whole
desert was found to be Uttered with
fragments of petrifed wood, from twigs,
the size of ones finger, to sections of
branches and trunks. On the northern
flank of the hill, hundreds of immense
trees were lying half buried in the sand.
Some of these were seventy feet in
length, and in many instances the bark
was still attached. All of them were
exogenous trees, not a single palm hav-
ing been discovered. From the absence
of roots, it is presumed by the writer
that these trees had been drifted here
by the sea. From the evident origin of
this hill, upon the summit of which
similar remains were also found, it was
named Kom eI Khashob-the Hill of
Wood. A careful survey determined
its height to be seven hundred and fifty,
feet above the Nile-IeveI at Cairo, and
therefore one hundred and forty feet
higher than the summit of the Great
Pyramid. In accounting for the exis-
tence of these remains and their Ioca-
ton, Mr.. Dixon states that "the forma-
ton of the land would lead to the sup
position that it has been the ancient
coast-line, and that the trees drifted to
where they are now found, and We're
there left Ia the briny waters of an
evaporating sea or salt lake, and, as the
fibre Of the wood decayed slowly away,
the space of each cell has been filed
up by the crystalline silica held in so
luton in the water. We have already
noticed in the Journal the fact that
| there have lately been found, In the
sands of the Toorkistan Desert, we'll
preserved specimens of marine mol
lusks, living representatives of which
/ are still found in the waters of the
Black and Mediterranean Seas. In
view of these and other equally favora-
bic evidences, the theory of an ancient
interior coast-Iine is not without reason
/ and authority. It viii be Of interest to
Eastern travellers to learn that this
newly-discoyered forest may be easily
reached ffom the Great Pyramid, only
a three hours journey either by don
KEY, camel, or horse, being also a win