The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1900-02-20


doubt something more than trees
will be brought to light. Great
forests are the lounging places
of ferocious beasts and sneaking
reptiles, and on the banks of the
lakes adjoining, the monsters of
the deep wallow in the mud and
sport among the rushes. Gener-
ally the larger the growth of
vegetation the larger the animal
life cotemperary Herewith. The
monster grizzly is found only
among the correspondingly pro-
life growth of trees and shrub
berry of the Golden State, for he
must have large trees to climb
and endless berry fields to forage
in else he would not long remain.
The boa-constrictor fiourishes
mid the shades of great tropical
forests where monkeys and
balloons do most delight to con-
gregate, otherwise his elongated
stomach would go begging, and
he would soon perish. So it is
reasonable to expect that the
future explorer will awaken fur
ther interest in our petrifed for
ests by unearthing fossil mas
tadon or something belonging to
the animal kingdom in keeping
with the growth of the trees.
In future years, ] am sure the
bones of the Idaho beef steer
will be exhumed in a fossil state,
and he may have niche in the
bone vaults of the Smithsonian
Institute, as a member of chemic-
ally dried and well-preserved
skeletons with the hide on, are
to be seen in the ravines near
the trees and which will soon be
entombed in the lkaline sediment
of the wasting hills.
The ground and debris appear
to have slid and banked up
against the stumps on the upper
side, and one can easily mount
to the summit. The largest one
is eleven to twelve feet across on
the top, and six or eight persons
can stand upon it with ease, as
Was demonstrated during our
visit. The most notable object,
however, is the tall broken trunk
standing in a ravine below the
others. This tree resembles an
Egyptian obelisk and is six to
seven feet in diameter and about
twenty-five feet in height. The
surface is quite smooth, and
regular, except a decayed furrow
on the lower side, as if from the
force of lightning, and has ap-
parently been denuded of the
bark. In fact it may be the heart
of very large tree, the remain
der having shelled off, as would
appear from the amount of petri.
fed wood lying near by.
| Between this point and the
river a number of horizontal
lodges of slate are seen well uI
the hillsides. These are said tc
be the groupings of coal veins, as
a mine of coal has been located
in the vicinity, but upon which
little work has been done.
Three or four miles to the
southwest of the group of trees
seen here, there is another fossil
field of considerable extent, many
stumps and trunks of trees being
exposed upon the surface. Those
who have visited it are loud il
praise of its numerous wonders
but it has not been fully explor
ed. North of Challis abou
twenty miles, in the direction O.
, the Yellow Jacket mining dis
trict, another strip of petrifieC
woods was discovered some
} years ago, but only few pros
, pectors and hunters have visited
| that locality.J
There were several in our party
, who had made rocks a study
, principally quartz and wall-rock
} although they had never befor'
} seen rock trees. Each one haC
, a different theory to advanc'
relative to the growth of thu
) trees and the time they hav,
: been in their present state. On'
} thought they were not so yer,
, aged after all, as he could see b,
the marks of the axe on some O
: them that they had been chopped
: down, probably by the early Sal
: mon River Indians with thei
, little stone tomahawks. AnotEe
, imagined he could see wher
: beaver had been gnawing g
| them. One undertook to explain
. that by the geological text tn
5 date at which these giants of tn
5 forest threw the cooling shade
5 of their luxurious growth owe
: the surrounding vegetation wa
? just fifteen hundred years B. c
r Still another antedated all thi
5 and settled the discussion b
acSprtiOo worry mnbatica1l lv tst n q