The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-03-12
WONDERFUL PETR1FAoTIoNs.

Great quantities Of petrified wood are
seen in many places. In some localities the
trunks of whole trees. 8 or 4 feet in dame
ter, lie stretched along the ground. These
are now solid stone.
Many years ago there was a desperate
and cattle thief who ravaged Northern Ari
IONA and Southern Nevada, but when close
pressed managed to escape, leaving no trace
or trail behind him When the flush Of per-
suit had cooled he always came back to his
old haunts, ran off horses or committed
some other deviltry, and was off to his
hiding place before pursuit could be Or
ganized to stop him. Where he fed TO or
what became Of him was not known until
long afterward. With party of prospec-
tors crossing the mountains Of
Northern Arizona we came to a rocky and
almost impossible gorge, and there, hang
ing against the basaltic wall half concealed
by q huge bowlder, was q cabin built of
pine logs. But remarkable to relate, the
whole building had become solid stone. 1t
was six feet high and 7x8 feet in the in
terror. Even the flooring was adamant,
ana the side walls, particularly from with
in, presented a glossy, transparent surface
that was quite pretty and curious
Cloudbursts, sweeping the coil out OF ra-
vines and cutting through mountain fats.
have often brought to light thick strata Of
logs and boughs, or long lines of stumps of
large trees standing as they grew, the roots
and all parts thoroughly petrifed.
1t is evident that at one time trees and
vegetation must have been abundant in the
great basin region, as it was the home of
animals now only found in the forests and
jungles OF tropical countries, Under a
stratum Of sandstone about twenty feet
thick at the state prison quarry, Carson
City, in layer of fine grained stone that
appears to have once been the soft oozy
I.k-a l.
dreds OF tracks OF various kinds of AMI
mails and birds. These tracks look as
fresh and distinct as those we fire.
quently at and about ponds after the
mud see domestic animalsiu the
soft material has hardened under the heat of
the sun. There are tracks of elephants,
rhinoceros, horse, deer, lions, tigers, vol YES,
hyenas, of many kinds of birds, large ana
small. There are also the tracks of what is
supposed to have been a man Of prehistoric
times. The tracks are such as as might
have been made by a biG-footed
man wearing clumsy moocasins Of undressed
hide.
The tracks Of all the larger animals lead
in one direction and all were evidently
moving toward the same object, which OBJ
ject must have been water-a lake or
spring. AS the soft mud, all now stone, is
seen to have been squeezed up or splashed
aside by the feet of some of the heavy beasts
the tracks cannot be far from where lay the
ancient lake or ponds, and by stripping OFF
the superintendent strata for a short dis
lance farther some wonderful discoveries
might be made.
A MOUNTAIN OF SOLID SALT.
The greatest single deposit Of salt in
Nevada is that which Ia sometimes called
salt mountain" and is q range of hius of
pure rock salt situated In the southwestern
corner OF the state in Lincoln county, This
mountain mRss OF rock salt ia of unrivaled
purity and possesses the solidity OF marble
II lies on the Rio Virgin, tributary of the
Colorado river, in the northern portion of
the Colorado basin.
A solid wall Of salt is exposed on each
side OF Cave Hill canyon, which Is so hard
thatit is necessary to blast it down. 1t is
worked like an open quarry and che salt Is
taken out in large blocks, which are 50
transparent that a newspaper can be read
through them. From this mountain ridge
Of salt might be querried an amount OF
that article sufficient to supply the whole
United States for ages
In several places in this region, Lincoln
county, Nevada, and the adjoining country
about Death valley, California, are
found traces Of former occupation
by some race Of civilized people,
probably the Spanish. In the Kingston
range of mountains, on the eastern face Of
Clarke mountain, near its summit, il
perpendicular cliff OF limstone
$50 feet in hight and with smooth surface
On the face of this cliff, at a hight of 100
feet from Its base, are engraved the follow
ing characters: TX l. Dr. The cross aud let
ters are of mammoth proportions, being
not less than sixty feet in hight. They ara
cut In to solid rock to depth OF two feet,