Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-08-08
A PETRIFlED FOREST.

stopped at the petrified forest. I left
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe at
Holbrook, engaged a cowboy and
horses and started at $3.50 a. m. After
riding about thirty or thirty-ive miles
we reached canyon, and following
this q 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 petrifed wood, showing
the bark and in some instances ever
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
Fights of an inch in thickness, and
struck them together to be sure that
they were not real wood, but they flew
to pieces and was convinced.
But by far the most interesting side
of the canyon is the side where the
agatized wood is found, or at least is
most abundant cit 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 closer,
for the ground is covered with trunks
OF trees ranging in length from 3 to 10
feet and in diameter from l to Z feet
(mostly about q to 3 feet in diameter).
The agatized wood seems, by it's process
OF Transformation, to have lost its
grain as we'll as it's natural color, and
the only apparent likeness which I
think these rocks bear to tree of this
age (besides their cylindrical shape) is
that in all instances the sap is of a
darke color, showing that decomposi-
ton 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
ii 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
rifle 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 so pounds
of Arizona. 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 a fossil trunk spans a
ravine 80 feet above running stream.
The bridge thus formed is rs feet long.
The tree trunk is exposed for over so
feet. This tree was the longest I'M
broken section and varied from 81 feet
in diameter at the base to p feet where
the top disappeared in the ground.
There was nothing to show tina.
branches had been broken off and but
one knot was visible. The tree was per-
fectly straight, and compared with tho
rest was SCARCELY as large as an aver
age-sized tree.
Would not this have been a paradise
for a lumber camp before nature got q
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 q
to cuff-button. In fact, be-
fore reaching Holbrook was informed
that firm of New York jewelers. had
bought up the entire tract (thus get
ting q corner on agatized WOODY and
were about to develop it.-Pasadena
(Cal.) Letter.
R@b