St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1885-08-29


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 Greek 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 id this way
The first forest. perhaps a 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 Il
geological illustration that is a marvel.
At 500 feet from the bottom the levels
are as distinctly marked rs if they had
been made by hand. every trunk and
ha .to -, nf
the bas-reliefs of nature. Many are
thrown out and PROSTATE. from fifty te
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 top;
show. they must have rivaled the great
sequoias of California. One remark.
able feature is that the bark-texture oil
the wood. grain. etc, are all as distinct
and well pre- served 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 mio:ene
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 undoabt-
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 a 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, |
rs when the bottom of the trunk is cut |
off down shoots the stony tree upon the |
miner without warning. In some
mines where the trees are solid they |
are left to support the ceiling. 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
of Sciences there is fine |
showing many specimens
from all over the world. PHILADELPHIA
Times