Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1886-11-18
MINING CEDAR TREES.
The Fallen and Subm srged Forests In tn
Southern Part Of New Jersey.


The Fallen and Submerged Forests in the
Southern Part OF New Jersey.
The fallen and submerged cedar
forests of this part of New Jersey. which
were discovered first beneath the Den
nisville swamps seventy-fve years ago
stll afford employment to scores of peo-
PIE in their excavation, and are source
of constant interest to geolog.sts. There
are stand ng at the present day no such
immense specimens of the cedar any
where in the country as are found en-
bedded deep in the muck OF the Dennis
vile swamps Some of the trees that
that have been unearthed are six feet in
diameter, and trees four feet through
are common.
Although ages must have passed since
these great forests fell and became COW
cred many feet beneath the surface,
such trees as fell, according to the gen.
eral theory, while yet living trees, are
as sound to-day as the day they were
uprooted. These trees are called wind
falls, as it is thought they were torn
up by the roots during some terrible
gale of an unknown past. Others are
found in the muck which are called
break-downs, as they were evidently
bad trees when they fell, and have been
held by the action of the mud and water
in the swamp in the same stage of decay
they were in when they fell. -
The cedar forests, it is thought, grew
in fresh-water lake or swamp, the ac-
ton of which was necessary to Their ex-
istence. According to Mr.. Clarence
Deming and DIR. Maurice Beaseley.
eminent geological authorities of South
ern New Jersey, the sea ther broke in
upon the swamps or the land subsidized,
and the salt water reached the trees
This destroyed the life of many of them,
and in time the great windfall came and
levellcd the forest. The trees now lie
beneath the soft soil at various depths,
and ever since 1912 the logs have been
mined and are an important factor in
the local commercial interests of South
Jersey. The cedars are cut up into
shingles and slaves, and the longevity OF
articles made from the wood IS shown
in shingles, tubs, and pals which were
made over seventy years ago, and which
show no signs of decay yet.
The working of cedar mine" is
exceedingly simple. The log digger
enters the swamp and prods in the soft
soil with a long, sharp iron rod. The
trees lie SO thickly beneath the surface
that the rod can not be pushed into the
muck before it strikes a log. This done,
the miner soon informs himself as to
the length of the trunk, and then chips
off piece which his rod brings up.
BY the smell of this chip the logger can
tell whether he has struck break down
or windfall, and, if it is the latter, he
proceeds at once to raise the log. He
works saw, similar to those used by
ice cutters, down through the mud AMI
saws the log in two as near the roots as
necessary The top is next sawed off,
and then the big &c lar stick is ready tc
be released from its resting place. "a A
ditch is dug down to the log the trunk
is loosened, and it rises up with the
water to the surface of the ditch. A
curious thing is noticed about thes, log
when they come to the surface, and thai
is that they invariably turn over will
their bottom sides up. The log is sawed
into proper lengths for shingles Of
slaves, which arc split and worked into
shape entirely by hand. These cedar
shingles command price much higher
than pine or chestnut shingles.
These ancient cedars are Of the whit,
variety, and have the same strong, arc
matte fragrance when cut that the com
mon red cedar has. The wood is of !,
delicate flesh color. One of the mys
teries is that none of the trees are eve
found to be water-logged in the slight
est degree. 1t IS impossible to tell how
many layers deep these cedars lie il, tn
swamp, but it is certain that there ar
several layers, and that with all tn
work that has been done in the swan,
for seventy years the first layer has no
yet been removed. At some places il
the marsh the soil has sunk for severa
feet and become dry, and there tn
fallen cedars may be seen lying one Oh
top of another in great heaps. No tire
has been removed from the Dennisvill
swamp from greater depth than tire
feet, but they have been foun,
at great depth outside the limit
of the swamp, showing not onl
the correctness of the deep-laycr theory
but the great extent of the anc;en
forest outside of a swamp area. Nea
the shores of the Delaware, nearly eigh
miles from Dennisville, white cedar log
have been exhumcd from depth o
twelve feet. AT Cape May, twent,
miles distant, tlriiiers of an artesial
we'll, struck one of the trees when tn
drill was almost ninety feet in tn
earth. 1t was lying in an alluval de
post similar to the Dennisville marsh
Another one was found at Cape Ma
twenty feet below the surface, and
third as depth of seventy feet. Thes
logs were all of enormous size. VIVA
1t is in the amber-colored swamp waite
and red muck at Dennisvillc that pre-
serves these trees so that after laps
of centuries their fiber is as clean an
smooth as it was when the greer
branches of the cedars were waving owe
the swamp is mystery that sc;entifi
men have as yet been unable TO solve
--DenpiSUilie en- ~ Cor. n. T. SuR.
Amonn tho oxcol1ant ,.;ot,ros Al,