The Washington times., 1901-08-05
THE pErR1r1Ep FOREST.
steps to he Taken to Protect Arizona
Wonderland,

A bill will probably be introduced in
Congress this fall. providing for the MAIN
tenance a Government reservation of
the celebrated petrified forest near Hol-
brook, Ariz. Prof Lester F. Ward. of
the National Museum, recommended in
his report to the Director of the Geoiog-
ical Survey some time ago that prompt
measures be taken to withdraw the land
from entry. His report and recommenda-
tions are included in a pamphlet about to
be issued by the Geological Survey and
containing much other matter on the same
subject.
The forest has recently been brought
within easy access for tourists by the
establishment of a new railroad station
named Adamana, whence 1t can be reach
ed by drive Of six miles, although its
most remarkable parts lie several miles
farther southwark. At the first deposit.
SO called, several sections of land are
strewn with fallen and broken trunks
washed out by erosion from the hne,
greyish, sandy material in which they are
embedded. Here is the noted Chalcedony
Bridge. One of the finest logs, nearly
four feet in diameter, spans a deep gully.
It's end resting on the banks and still
partly covered up. Much of the wood In
this part of the forest is broken up ana
scattered over the ground in small frag-
ments.
The second deposit four miles to the
southeast, covers several hundred acres.
and consists of large logs, many OF them
three and four feet in diameter, and the
greater number broken into cylindrical
sections five or six feet long, on which
the bark, although petrified and having
the hardness of stone, appears as natural
as if the trees had been felled but short
time before.
The third deposit, the largest of all.
consists of thousands upon thousands OF
-fossilized logs. Some of them are entire
trees, with limbs and branches still intact.
All the logs, both great and small, and
even the fragments, are of great beauty
and variety of color These tracts con-
tain the largest deposits, but vestiges OF
the petrified forests are found over a wide
extent of country.
The forest is regarded as belonging to
the Triassic age and is therefore more an
cient than the petrified forests Of Cali
fornia and the Yellowstone Park, which
are largely Tertiary.
Nowhere are the fossil trunks in their
place of growth. The original beds must
have been a great deal higher in the
strata which were eroded to form the
sandstone into which the trunks were car
by Mesozoic seas and not raised until the
great Post-Cretaceous elevations began
and lifted this entire region a mile above
the present sea level
tract be made Government reservation.
Prof. Ward was Influenced by the fact
that while yet no serious inroads have
been made in the forest by tourists or by
the operations of several concerns which
cut and polish and use the wood for orna-
mental purposes. 1t will not be long before
the effect of such depredations. as regards
the more perfect specimens at least, will
be noticeable unless something is done.
The great trunk which forms the span
of the Chalcedony Bridge is said to be un-
stable, and If not artifcially supported
will soon fall into the gully it bridges.
thus destroying a remarkable natural Gu
riosity.