The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1889-08-21

! hills or undulations, into which drains all
the rainfall of the neighborhood. There
are no springs, lakes, rivers or streams of
any kind near by. The lake covers about
$50 acres, is several feet deep, and al
though formed in the sand, yet the ac-
ton of the water has converted the gyp-
sum bottom into snow-white mass,
cemented so substantially and compactly
that there is no way of the water escaP-
ing except by the slow process of evapo-
ration Seen at midday when the sun is
at its brightest, the human eye cannot
sustain for even a few seconds the brill
liant and binding glare from this won
derful formation of nature. Even in
dead of summer, when there is no moisture
whatever in the place, it is a terrible
thing for human creatures to attempt a
passage through this gypsum valley. The
| heat is intolerable and the refraction so
terrific that it is painful and even dan
gerous to experience it. Possibly in con-
nection with the heavy rains of last sea-
son cloud burst or water spout may have
played an important part in the forma-
tion of this lake.
Ages ago there lived in portions of
Arizona and New Mexico curious race
of people who evidently could not trust
their fellow-men. Their houses were
suspended in the air, so to speak, built
against cliffs and precipices, or were
carved out of solid masonry in the side of
PERCEPTIONS hills, and so high that it was
impossible to reach them except by
means of ladders. The people who lived
] -, a. ,lDolae Hpol-c and
herds, titled the ground, and pursued ag-
riculture generally, yet so careful were
they Of their own precious hides that the
general custom at night was to climb up
into their dwellings and pull the ladders
up after them. There are about six
thousand square miles of country covered
by these curious dwellings, and though
little off from railroads and out of the
way of travel, yet a visit of inspection to
any one Of them would richly pay the
arch9ologist who has the nerve and en-
duranco TO undertake the task. The
average cliff house is of firm, neat ma
sonry, attached or cemented to the cliffs
in a most marvellous fashion, and evil
IDENTITY cost a great outlay of energy and
ingenuity in It's construction. In some
cases the rock and mortar of which they
are built have been brought hundreds of
feet up the most precipitous places, and
this without the aid, apparently, of me-
chanical contrivances of any kind. Some
of the houses were constructed of adobe
bricks, FOR which an everlasting cement
was used. In the Apache country of
Arizona, near the entrance of wild,
rugged mountain gorge, are a series of
remarkable cliff dwellings.
In reality they are not cliff but cave
dwellings,; yet, as in the former case, the
only mode of access is by means of lad
ders, for they underlie a tremendous
precipice. The doorways are square holes
+ from four to six feet in diameter, and
crawling into one OF these murky, damp
: places one must be careful of reptiles and
vermin, which seem to have taken abso-
lutte possession since the rightful owners
have departed The ceilings are seven or
r eight feet high, walls square of about
a the same diameter, and the whole in
, terror in some cases is decorated with
2 stars, comets, and other astronomical fig
, ures. Who the cliff dwellers were no
. one now can tell. They probably pre-
, ceded the Aztecs, who emigrated from
+ the region, and, perhaps, they were con-
a temporary with the Toltecs, who are said
: to have been extinct before the Aztecs
!, were a people.
( At the base of these cliffs is another re-
p markable curiosity known as Montezu-
t mas Well. 1t was built by the inhabit-
ants of that period, supplying them with
;. | t1,a r,,oip+t1ra fn Ii fp
The wonder of all curiosities, however,
c in the Southwest is the petrlfed forest in
. Apache County, Arizona. What makes
= it more remarkable than it otherwise
= would be is the fact that the forest never
/ grew on the spot where it now lies, but
G was transported bodily from some region
e by force of nature that we can little
S imagine. There are no stumps or trunks
/, Of trees left in the ground-no roots,
4 small limbs, or anything to show that
e vegetable matter could live and thrive in
1 the volcanic ashes of the section, and yet
: mammoth tree trunks turned into hare
e adamantine stone lie here in the creates
= profusion, millions of tons in sight, an(
}. no definite answer is there to the puzzle
IS In some cases the trees arc of gigantic
d size, having a diameter of eighteen o.
1t twenty feet at the base and height o
Is more than $50 feet.
l. The scene reminds one of Sindbad'
" dream or Aladdin's cave. As far as tn
T. eye can reach pieces of chrysoprase, cane
a lian, sard and chalcedony are scattered
IS bits Of amethyst, jasper, calcite, and agat
n glitter in the sunlight, blazing with indie
1t scribable brilliancy, and so thick on tn
ground that one can hardly step withou
le placing his foot on a gem of ''purest ra
& serene This mineralized wood is scat
le tered over more than two thousand acre
" of surface. Situated in a desert of Law
lc and ashes, although, as remarked, million
n of tons of the material are in sight, yet a
n this mass must be amere bagatelle to wha
le is really concealed beneath the volcani
of ruin which at one time swallowed th
s, whole country in its deadly embrace.
" is scarcely possible to solve the myster
it that surrounds the wonderful Chalcedon
to Park of Arizona There is something
IN the soil that silicifies wood, for on til
of northern border of Arizona, near tn
at Colorado line, is a cabin, built some yea
G. ago by a mountain desperate, which h'
an since been converted into stone, probabl