The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-08
The Fossil Forests of Yellowstone
 t,.k

| the threatened destruction of the Calav 1 eras Grove of Big Trees induces me tc write another. In that letter l men | toned incidentally that many species o1 | Sequoia existed, which are now only | found fossil, and that our two Callfornla l species are the only living representa- tives of a genus that had great lmpor- | tance in earlier geological times. The l interest shown in the publication o1 these facts, so familiar to Seologists but so little known to the public, is my excuse for this letter, although the dan ger has probably passed which I then called attention to.
 The Yellowstone Park has an especial interest to geologists all over the world, and the United States Geological sur vey has recently published a large quarto volume of over 800 pages and 12l plates, describing it's geology and fos- sils. The volume consists of series or monographs, one of which relates to its fossil botany More than 150 species of fossil plants have been found in the
 park, and nowhere else in the world do
 fossil forests occur that are so interest,"
 ing either as phenomena for scientific
 study or as objects of scenic interest
 Just now this popular interest is en-
 hanced because of the destruction
 threatened the modern representatives
 of those bygone forests in which the Se-
 quotas were such very conspicuous
 feature Their stony trunks impress
 the beholder with a wonder and awe
 fully as great, possibly ever greater,
 than that produced by the living giants
 that were the chief subject of my pre-
 ceding letter.
 Petfified wood is found in various
 parts of the world, more particularly in
 regions where ancient volcanic ashes
 occur. This material is especially
 adapted, both chemically and mechani-
 cally, to preserve and petrify vegetable
 remains, and especially wood. Seat
 tered fragments of silicif1ed wood are
 abundant in many countries and a few
 so-called fossil forests are described.
 These are usually merely an aggrega-
 ton of petrifed fragments of wood or
 portions of logs and occasional stumps,
 The 'petrifed forests of California,
 Arizona and Egypt are of this charac-
 ter and are very we'll known. The fos- eil forests of the Yellowstone Park are
 uillht eiil LII lnISS, VI lbe'e ehS
 of the trees are not only very abundant
 but that many are still upright in the
 position in which they grew. The soil about their roots and the material in
 which their trunks are buried is more or less hardened into rock by the chemical changes which have taken place, and the wood has been silicified by the min eralized waters that have percolated the volcanic ashes in which they were en- veloped
 The Yellowstone Park Is region of former volcanic activity, displayed on an immense scale. Nowhere else can ancient volcanic phenomena in it's many forms be better studied than there The tourist gazes with wonder and awe on the dying gasps of that activity, as seen in the geysers, the hot mineral springs and their deposits: and on various other phases of the former activity as record ed in the great beds of lava. in the cliffs of Obsidian and in the wonderful vari- ety of volcanic products to be found there.
 During the Tertiary period, and when this volcanic activity was at It's height, a mild climate prevailed over much of the northern hemisphere, the great for ests, on both the eastern and western extended to far within the Arctic circle They must have been as grand in their aspect as they were ex- tensive geographically. The kinds of trees that then grew in Europe more nearly resembled those then growing in America than do the forests of to-day. Often the same species were found in both continents, and ranging northward to Nova Zembla and Greenland Such was the case with several species of Se- quoia. Moreover, in those days the for asts of Yellowstone Park had many spe- ces more like those of the Eastern States than are now found in the Rocky The forests now there are mostly cone-bearing trees but many broad leaved species then grew there along with the evergreens, Nine species l )f oak are found fossil in the park, five If walnut, four of hickory, eight of pop 1 ar. five of sycamore; there was beech l md chestnut and elm and magnolia, and | SO on. Of the cone-bearing trees, there | were four species of Secuoias, some of | hem of great size and in great abund l lnce. They were probably the largest | rees found there and constituted the | glory of those forests, and some of them | 'anged eastward to the Atlantic, north | ward to Greenland, and were abund- l mt also in Europe.
 Volcanic material often makes an ex- | client soil for three growth, as is now l ieen in the heavy forests on the slope; l ,f Mt. Shasta. Mt. Ranier and other, | volcanic regions in California an1 | lorthwards Under such favorable con- | litions the forests in Yellowstone Park | lourished in Tertiary times. Volcanic | activity is spasmodic. Periods of re- pose are followed by periods of eruption. t is so now. it was so then, and on much grander scale. From time to time m eruption would devastate | region liter reoose of centuries. Volcanic lshes would cover the land deep enough 1 0 smother the trees and bury them where they stood Then would follow
 mother period of repose, lasting for enturies, 1t may be for decades of cen uries, during which new forests would
 gain occupy the region, destined to be n turn killed by another great out 'urst. Several localities show a sue ession of buried forests lying one above
 mother plainly telling their history. n one locality. on Amethyst Mountain, he strata are thus piled up until more han two thousand feet in thickness in thich at least fifteen buried forests are oW found one above another. Since l