The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-08-20
FORESTS OF STONE.
Probing for Logs Beneath the Sur
face in New Jersey.
Trying to Chop a Tree of Rock-Trunks,
Boughs and Leaves Turned to Stone
A Description of Some of
Natures Wonders.

'f you want to see something
curious, " said friend who was men,
Der of Government survey, "go down
with me to Woodbine. Four miles be-
yond Woodbine, out on the sandy
stretch of old sea bottom or beach that
is termed the Cape May Peninsula, we
came upon DenniSyille, where all the
Dennises of all time had evidently
settled. A local Dennis said there were
twenty-five hundred of them and nine
tenths were evidently children. They
lived in scattered shanties or houses on
long narrow street, on each side of
which malaria stalks abroad from the
great swamps that constitute their
boundary. The latter, however, that
are perhaps over twelve square miles in
extent, are the means of providing a
living to nearly all the inhabitants of
Dennisville, though the nature of their
occupation would never be suspected
from external observation.
We're all in the loggin' business"
said a tall, thin Dennis, yet as far as
the eye could reach not tree could be
seen standing that would make even
the ghost of fair log. ''They amt
a-growin'," continued the man.
They're underground. We dig for
them, or spear them, as you might say.
Here's the tool, and stepping into a
low hut he brought out crowbar that,
IKE everything else, seemed attenuated
and was stretched out into long,
slender-pointed rod. 1--WE wade along"
continued the man, land probe with
tbs feeler, and when we strike a log
we feel around, and if it's a good one
We dig her up, and if it amt we let her
soak; that's about the way of it."
80 down in Jersey you burrow for
your logs?"
That's about it" replied the man.
lou know we're obliged to be a whit
oou OF SO; we've got the name of it,
ne secret of this business, said
my friend, the geologist, ''is that ages
$50 ali this area was covered with a
nne growth of large trees. and the same
s'r., @,u found growing in some parts of the
samp ss|ahp yet' but they have died out and
t .aIeh down and sunk into the soft mud,
mnd n" 80 oeen covered up by mould and
nroG. ou until many other layers have
st1"n st over them; but in some remark
tbae ao,e way the wood is preserved and
noo5 oo.ss sunSen ancient logs are Just as
oou Ior shingles and other articles as
raoy 10y were When alive; hence for many
ks SIS 'nere mas been steady hunt for
;nS TnS,n, and Dennisville is result of the
nmuuStry. nv 10 the botanist the tree is
one evergreen white cypress or
~ tbbpressus thyoides sempervirens. and
sne numbers that once grew over this
are alp ana that have been entombed
~n ~,e beyond conception. The trees
op opon OF near the surface are the only
bns* aes available, and fortunately are the
,n Uss: out lar below there are probably
ras. siiaos OF others turned to stone and
aespIesenting the past geological aoes
ont ~ 1,e bs earth. The logs were worked
s. .S W the men who are nicknamed
ro;s rSo;msanpoodles,' and who live in the
Eno us' OF the malarious district all their
rs Us when log is found a ditch is
soa aae ABOUT it, into which the water
ana yJu ~ vows A great saw is then applied
tLo Tue roots removed, and as a rule
ha ,os VIII rise to the surface and can
m. cut up and carried off, though in
r;ah.y any localities the shingles are made
sga ne on the spot and dragged over the
swamp on roads il many cases made 'r of