Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1874-12-10

ances due,a make m advance payment is am
pie, and we fattcr ourselves that but few names
will be dropped.
ALEXANDRIA, November g.
THE GARDEN OF THE GODS
If ever there was place on earth where the
gods of the Greeks and Romans may be sup
posed to have lived and had good time, that
place must have beeu in Colorado. Near the
foot Of the famous mountain known as Pike $
Peak, lies the garden Of the gods" 1t is a
small valley, just on the edge Of the Rocky
mountain, and is completely surrounded by a
high, perpendicular wall OF white sand stone.
There are two entrances through this wonderful
wall; one of them-thc larger-is called ''the
beautiful gate" 1t is narrow gap 10 mass
OF rock more than 100 feet high As you en-.
ter you look over valley fenced in on all sides
with while sandstone; and nearly opposite, at
the top of bil is another smaller gateway
half concealed by huge rock about the size of
an ordinary cottage. This mass of rock is 80
balanced on the edge of the slope thar it looks
as if it might Jump of aud 60 laundering down
the hill while you look at it. The garden of the
gods abounds with beautiful trees and foliage,
and towering amidst this loveliness are some of
the most extraordinary, queer and fantastic
shapes ever made out OF rock. Ages ago,
when this part of the world was in a state OF
terrible commOtion, vast layers Of rock were
forced up out of the earth in all sorts Of posi-
tions Some were vertical. some slantlng, and
some were criss-cross aud mixed up generally.
Learned men say that was the way these lay
ers of sandstone, which once we're fiat, got up
edgewise aud in all other ways. We must take
their word for it. There was nobody there to
see. Trees and shrsbs, after time, grew up
around and the disturbed earth had peace.
Then came the mountain winds and the long
autumnal rains. Yhe wind blew the sand against
the rocks which are so soft that you could dig
holes in them With astrong jackknife The wear
ing Of the sand and wind and water against these
stony surfaces carved them into all sorts of wild
and funny shapes. Ages and ages passed away
probably, before these grOtesque sculptures
looked as they do now. Here and there among
the trees rise up fantastic snaps like spires,
towers and steeples. Some of the fanciful
names given these are "Montezuma's cathe-
dral," "Cleopatra's needle" Washington
monument" ''the Cathedral Spires" and
Needle rock" But, of course, the half hui
man looking objects that gave name to this
curious garden a1e most likely to attract atten-
ton. The names by which they are known are
as fantastic as the shapes themselves. One, q
figure of woman. draped and standing mourn
fully alone, has many names. 1t is called "the
mourning bride" "the widow" "the old
maid, aDd by other titles, any one of which
may happen to stick to the pathetic figure,
that mi ght be called Lots wife, only that it
is a pillar of stone instead of pillar of salt.
Then there is huge water worn bowlder, that
looks for all the world like gigantic frog in
the act of getting ready to jump. You get
tired looking at this stony frog. He seems
about to leap, but he never does: He has
been in that position for | don't know how
many hundred years ard he has not jumped
yet. One par. of the wall, where the white
sandstone is mixed with red, is gigantic head
of buffalo. There it ress-horns, ears, nos,
trs and all-glowerng down at you, just as
ifit were petri6ed mammoth butfalo's head
stuck up there as trophy, as the head aud
auters of deer are sometimes hung up
trophies of the chase. Another singular group
is ''the nun aud the seal' You will have no
difficulty in making out this picture; and as the
seal is peering over the rock at the nun who
seems 10 have been at prayer, this group is
sometimes called interrupted meditation" If
it may be allowed, should say it might be
called ''the height of impudence" 1t is about
fifty feet high.-St Nicholas for December
GERMAN OCEAN ONCE Dry LAND.-The
German Ocean, or North Sea, like the Eng
llSh ChaDncI was once an lntanQ pain or val
Icy, raised far above the sea level. The sea
has but recently invaded this depressed plain,
submerged its forests, and superseded its river
courses. The buried trees OF Its sunken tor-
ests are still standing, rooted ln their own vege-
table soil, although beneath the waves. Gro.
mer Forest, which dips into the waters from
the coast Of Norfolk, is the most famous OF the
submerged forests of the German Ocean. Thls
ancient woodland has beeu traced at low tide
for more than forty miles. At certain seasoDs
and especially after great storms, the stumps
OF oak, alder yew and Scotch fir are seen stand
ing upright in the water. The condition of the
wood aud Of the fir cones-some of the latter
evidently bitten by auimals-tells US that the
sinking of the land here occurred at no distant
period. In the physical history Of our country.
The remains of land animals, too, as we'll as Of
the forests they Inhabited, are discovered IN
the bed of the German Ocean. In his "Physi
osl Geography of Norfolk" MIR. Woodward
tells US that 10 less than fifteen years the fish
ermeu of the village of Happisburgh dredged
up from their oyster beds as many as two thous-
and teeth OF mammoths. Bones and tusks. of
mammoths have also been 6shed up from these
watery depths. 1t takes us back 10 the time
when the European mainland, instead OF ter,
mlnatlug as it does to-day, with the coasts OF
Norway and France, stretched far westward In
one unbroken area, beyond the present coast OF
Ireland. These were the hourishing days OF
the forests of oak, chestnut, alder and yew,
which are DOW submerged in the German
Ocean and the Englsh Channel. Leisure