The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1894-02-13
NOT PETRlFACTION.
NEVER WAS suoHArHINe ASA pET-
RlFleD HUMAN BODY.

A fow Facts on Subject which Is Mt tho
Mercy Of Popular Recommendation ON
tho Yellowstone Rlver--w what Petrifac.
tion Really Is.
One reads almost every weel, IN tho
newspapers OF the finding Of n "prtrifedu
human body. Such thing never did aud
never will exist Nevertheless, SO dense
is the popular ignorance of such matters,
and so ready the human mind 70 10 dc.
luded, that reports % this kind are com.
munly accepted as facts IL would 30 well
Il they could DO deprived OF cr0aibility for
all Future time 10y tho publication of a few
truths on this subject
In the FIRST place "pctrifartionr Il not,
strictly speaking, a transformation of the
original nuimM or plant into stone Its
merely replacement Of the organic tissua
10y mineral substance AS each particln
of the plant or animal decays and dise,,-
pears, It's place is taken, usually In water
or mud, by u particle OF IMMORAL matt ar
Deposited from the watrr which hns held
II In suspension, Thus tho perishabln
original is ohanged into imperishablc
stone preserving its form and even its
structural appearance when cut into
by such means have the skeletons OF an
imals millions of years old been preserved
In the rocl,sof the everlasting hills, so that
they may BE- reconstructed today ns they
were ages before man appeared on the
earth But ii is only the bones that arr
in this way Kept; never The flesh, because
water oaunot prrcolato through it. In tho
same way whole forests Of trees IN the
Yellowstone region and elsewhere nrc
changed into agate and other forms OF
stope, the hollow logs OF the forest prime
val helug often found filled with boauti.
iul crystals OF quartz and amethyst.
The ellis that border the eastern branch
OF tho Yellowstone iiverailortl u view OF a
series of such forests hurried ON top OF one
another. The lowcrnost level was origi.
nally q wooded plain, hundreds Of thou9
sands OF yeals ngu, Volcanoes burst forth
In tho neighhorhood, and It was ovor-
whelmed by their debris. On top the lat
Ter frcsh trees took root and grew, to be
ia thoir turn buried by subsequent orilp-
tons This sort OF thug continued through
century after century, until 1000 feet Of
neaumulatons wero heapad above the for
est at the bottom
Beneath the hills thus FORMED water
flowed, as IL dots constantly through the
earth crust, The buried trees gradually
decayed, and their accomplishing substance
was replaced by miucihl muttcr, traua-
forming them into stone. Afterward the
Yellowstone river cut down through the
strata formed Of volcanic debris IN the
manner described, For thousands and
thousands Of years tho great stream plowed
out liz bed, until today the latter Is Il
cut eco feet deep--a canyon walled in by
towering cli0s, Aud as ono looks upward
A a..
~ 10 he seen in the successive layers COM
posing them. They can be counted casily,
the reckoning carrying the observer back
20 the very night OF time, when real drag
ons and Chimeras dire walked on the earth,
swami in the seas aud llewin the air,
Nearly ali tho trees which limo these
wonderful cli1s are turned into agate.
| One can climb up and knock them on. az
they break readily into sectionH, Many
/ of them, which were hollow before they
| were buried arenlled with beautiful erysi
| tails Of quartz and amethyst. Winter, per
colating into such hollow trunks, brought
particles OF silica, which formed them
selves into crystals. finally nllinR NJ the
cavities It Is Ia hollow pnrts nt buried
trees that nearly al existing crystals Of
amcthystand qunFtzwerc originally form,
ed They arc treasures which were hid
denawpy by the handof natnrein old logs
aud stumps Amethyst Of course r. merely
quartz crystal with "A little col0ring mnt-
ter from metallic oxides
Much Of tho agatzed md iasp6tiged
wood fonnd ~ various parts Of the west
was thus transformed under wAter. There
Is fossil forest Of suCh material nc Los
Corllos, r. NJ, aud another at Chaloedo.
ny Park, A. H. II n largely used for or
nnmentnl purposes The trees fell agd
were submerged, hecomiDgsilicineh inthe
manner already described While thiswas
going on, spores uf fungi flouted Into tho
oraots ia The trunks and branches, ger
minating and extending their threads OF
mycelum through tho decay ing wood
These threads arastill visible in the pet
rihedn--the word 'iossilxedh IL consid-
cred preferable y, substance, ramifying
through the cells Of the wood The water
also brought sults of iron in solution, which
were secreted by the fungus aud after
ward deposited by It, thus enriehing the
celebration OF the fossiIiged structure,
Iron, being plentiful IN many rocks and
readily soluble, often replaces organic sub
stances and forms fossils IN the depart
mcnt OF prehistoric nnthropology at The
Smithsonian Institution Is preserved q hui
man skull Of iron, which was dug oub Of
"A hillside not long ago Not only has iron
replaced the substance Of the bone, but
the brain cavity ia flied with tho metal.
30 that tho skull weighs mnny pounds.
The hill IN which its owner was buried
was rich In iron ore, Of course,
Shells, inclosoJ IN tho strata Of hills,
are someflmes transformed into opal by a
process Of fosilization, opal being merely
form oil quartz. Notifications, properly
termed fossil remains, Of plants ara read
ily dlstnguishable Ia beds Of coal, 80 that
II Is easily determined from what sorts 81
giant ferns and other trees the coal WIS
originally formed. Among the most an-
cient OF fossils are numerous insects,
which, despite the deicacy OF their strne-
tnre. have been preserved through millions
Of years for tho instruction II modern
generation the very duff ON tho wings Of
the primryal moth being plainly dlstin
guishablp,
Most Of the bodies reported In the news
papers as found ''petriiedp are examples
OF Is phenomenon long familiar, They have
been transformed not into stone, but into
substance called Hadipocere,p or 'grase
,vnv Thta ~ n true sonIl into which the