The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-08-20
BELLEVUE, La, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1885,

! og,st, al look run up the valley of
the east fork of the Yellowstone. There
is country for you, and, fortunately,
in the National Park and to be saved
from destruction. In going up the
valley you have the beautiful Yellow
stone Mountains to the north and to the
south the famous Amethyst Mountain,
| that for its fossil or stone forests is ex-
tremely remarkable. Directly opposite
the valley of the Soda Butte Creek rises
the mountain, with an exposed strata at
least two thousand feet high. The
| summit is about nine thousand feet up.
As you follow up the trail you will at
once be struck with the curious surface
of the mountain, and there in one section
you can count distinctly at least twenty
five forest levels formed in this way.
| The first forest, perhaps million years
ago, grew and died down; SOL accumu-
lated and then another forest grew on
that, until finally the twenty-five have
| grown. In the meantime strata to the
depth of two thousand feet has been de.
| pOsited-that is, the distance from the
present trees growing on top to the first
one below is two thousand feet. You
can count up to suit yourself
| how many years it took to accomplish
this. For the first four hundred
feet the display is not very striking, as
the trunks are partially covered, but as
your eye rises you are presented with a
| geological illustration that is marvel
At 500 feet from the bottom the levels
are as distinctly marked as if they had
been made by hand, every trunk and
the roots standing out in bold relief
the bas-reliefs of nature. Many are
| thrown out and PROSTATE, from fifty tc
sixty feet in length and from five to six
feet in diameter. In cases where the
roots are seen penetrating the solid
rock the sight is an impressive one,
showing how many years it must have
| taken to accomplish such results Some
of the trees imbedded are over twelve
feet in diameter and, as only the tops
show, they must have rivaled the great
| sequoias of California. One remark.
able feature is that the bark-texture OF
the wood, grain, ETC., are all as distinct
and we'll preserved as if they had beer
taken from living trees.
The trees, however. are not conifers
the solid rock about them shows this.
Once covered with soft green mating
of grass, it received the falling leaves
and seeds, and now they are found Just
as perfect as in life, only turned to
stone. From these the botanist is en-
abled to determine what they were and
how long ago they lived upon the earth.
| Lesquereux made the first examination,
and pronounced them as belonging to
| the lower pliocene or upper miocene
time of geology. They include such
species as aralia, magnolia, Taurus, tilia,
fraxinus, cornus, pteris, alnus, ferns,
| etc. All around this locality the same
old remains of forests could be found,
and the fine collections of quartz and
| calcite that were spread about undoqbt-
edly were all formed in the trunks of
trees. On the opposite side of the river
the same condition of things was
noticed, and the trunks here were,
if anything still larger and more
certainly higher up, as the range was
| by actual measurement over eleven
thousand feet high and contained the
stony trees to the very summit These
forests are found in various parts of the
world. In Heard Island there is cave
that contains number of extremely
large trees, and in most all coal mines
large trunks are found that date back
millions and millions of years. In some
mines terrible accidents often occur
from the presence of these great trunks,
as when the bottom of the trunk is cut
off down shoots the stony tree upon the
miner without warning. III some
mines where the trees are solid they
are left to support the ceiling. l have
seen tree taken from mine at New
castle (the Jarrow mine) that was forty
feet in length and thirteen feet in
diameter. 1t was worked out of the
coal as carefully as possible, but it
could not be all removed as the trunk
divided at the summit into over twenty
large branches. The name of this coal
giant was Lepidodendron Sternbergii.
Some of the ferns of this time were
gigantic, and in the Philadelphia
Academy of Sciences there is fine
collection, showing many specimens
from all over the world. Philadelphia
Times