The Arizona sentinel., 1888-08-11
A PEIRIEIEp FOREST.
Portions of Arizona That Are Strewn wi
 Agatized Wood.

Portions of Arizona That Are Strewn with
 Agatized Wood.
 On the way hither through Arizona stopped at the petrified forest. I Jeff the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe al Holbrook, engaged a cowboy and horses and started at 3:S0 a. m. After riding about thirty or thirty-five miles we reached a canyon, and following this mile or so found ourselves among the most wonderful works of nature have ever seen. At this point the can- yon is wide and rocky, yet every rock, large or small, is piece of agatized or petrified wood. On one side the trans formation seems to have been of the ordinary kind, and we find perfect specimens of petrified wood, showing the bark and in some instances even the rings of growth. In some places protruding from the earth may be seen the trunks of trees, branches and even roots, so complete has been the change. In other places sections of fossil trees have from exposure at last been broken up by the action of the elements. Often the fragments of stone resemble perfectly, both in color and in struct- ure, the natural wood, showing the grain, sap and knots of the original tree. At first picked up two splinters a foot long and not more than three eights of an inch in thickness, and struck them together to be sure that they were not real wood, but they flew to pieces and I was convinced.
 But bysfar the most interesting side of the canyon is the side where the agatized wood is found, or at least is most abundant Git is found for miles in every direction, and to the south as far as the eye can reach the country is dotted here and there with what ap- pear to be short saw logs). On this side the trees must have grown close for the ground is covered with trunks of trees ranging in length from to 10 feet and in diameter from 1 to 2 feet (mostly about 2 to feet in diameter). The agatized wood seems, by its process of transformation, to have lost it's grain as we'll as its natural color, and the only apparent likeness which l think these rocks bear to tree of this age (besides their cylindrical shape) is that in all instances the sap is of darke color, showing that decomposi- tion probably affected it while the heart or wood of the tree remained sound. Also, in many instances, the rings of growth, being very thick, are marked by lines of cleavage. You would think it strange if at every step you were treading on pieces of beauti- fully-colored agate, but in this canyon if you are not stepping on pieces it is because you are on one piece; it is all agate. did not go prepared to bring back specimens. In fact I found a Winchester rife and six-shooter were enough to carry, but it was impossible to come away without bringing some thing, so we took the sack that had held oats and that oat sack is now in my sachel inclosing about 90 pounds of Arizona. I have pieces of the roots, bark, sap, branches, pitch, knots and best of all cone, to prove that these trees were closely allied to, if not the identical eucalyptus tree of the day. In one place fossil trunk spans a ravine 30 feet above running stream. The bridge thus formed is 9 feet long. The tree trunk is exposed for over 50 feet. This tree was the longest un- broken section and varied from B feet in diameter at the base to 2 feet where the top disappeared in the ground. There was nothing to show that branches had been broken off and but one knot was visible. The tree was per fectly straight, and compared with the rest was scarcely as large as an aver age-sized tree.
 Would not this have been paradise for lumber camp before nature got claim on the limit. But suppose some enterprising fellow-citizen of ours will ere long take up this tract and begin manufacturing every thing from a tabletop to a cuff-button. In fact, be- fore reaching Holbrook was informed that a firm of New York jewellers had bought up the entire tract (thus get ting a corner on agatized wood) and were about to develop it.-Pasadend (CdL.) Letter.
 PROTECTING HIMSELF.