St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1901-12-28
WONDERS OF FOSSIL FORESTS.
Prehistoric Americans In
Arizona Wilds.


Prehistoric Americans In
Arizona Wilds.
In the petrified forest Of Arizona ar.
ruins of several ancient Indian vii
lagos, which present to the eye a very
remarkable spectacle, inasmuch a:
they are built of logs from fossil trees
These particular trees are of species
known to botanists as Araucarioxylon
and have no living representative near
er than Chill and the Pacific islands.
DR.. Walter Hough, in a recent com
munication to the. Plant World, says:
During the process of fossilization
the trunks of these ancient conifers
which had fallen and sunk down in the
soft mud of the Jura-Triass lake
shores, became divided into cylinders
from two to rarely more than ten feet
in length, SO that they can scarcely be
called logs. The prehistoric jewellers
Of the land selected cylinders of uni.
form size, which were seemingly de-
termined by the carrying strength OF
man. 1t is probable that prehistoric
builders never chose more beautiful
stones for the construction of their
habitations than the trunks of the
trees which hourished ages before
man appeared on the earth.
"This wood agate also furnished
material for stone hammers, arrow
heads and knives, which are often
found in ruins hundreds of miles from
the forest, the vivid colors, no doubt,
being very attractive to the ancient
people, who made long journeys for
the stone.
'The visit to the petrifed forest was
one of the most pleasant experiences
which have fallen to the lot of the
writer during his chronological ex-
plorations in Arizona. In the valleys
gnawed from the edge of the Bad
Lands surrounded by fantastic pin
nacles and mesas, lie in chaotic con-
fusion sections Of the fossil trees, too
hard for the tooth of time, which has
formed the landscape around them.
The ground is covered with gaudy
fragments, which tempt the traveller
to load himself down with specimens,
and every step makes one feel that he
is in an enchanted land"
"The people who dwelt in the petri-
fed forest of Arizona in prehistoric
times were the ancestors of the peo-
pie who live in that part of the coun-
try to-day" said Prof. w. II. Holmes,
anthropologist in chief of the Nation
al museum. ''They were Indians of the
Pueblo tribes, and belonged to several
groups, of which the Moki and Zuni
were two. Their culture was superior
to that of the descendants of to-day,
as is proved by the plentiful remains
which they have left behind.
wherever we find the aborigines on
this continent we learn that their an
Gent culture, if they had any worth
mentioning, was superior to that of
their descendants of to-day. On COM
ing into contact with the whites the
indians lose their own arts, abandon
to great extent the culture that
properly belongs to them, and be-
come hangers-on to Caucasian civili-
zation. In this way the Pueblo tribes
appear to have lost less than any
others, but they have suffered consid-
erably.
Fix it in your mind that the region
OF the petrified forest reveals no signs
of any prehistoric people aside from
the ancestors of the Pueblo tribes.
Next, realize that there is hardly a
square mile of that country which
does not contain some remains of an
Gent art, buildings, pottery, or what
not, to serve as q memorial of human
jewellers of long ago. In that land of
drought water is always the chief
desideratum, and it may be taken for
granted that during many centuries
past no spot where water was to be
found has been without population.
Where there is or was no water there
are sure to be traces of hunting camps
or other evidences of temporary oc.
cupancy.
"The discovery Of ruined villages in
the fossil forest, with remains of
houses built of logs from the petrified
trees, is not at all surprising. Wher-
ever man finds himself in the world he
constructs his dwelling of the mate
rails most conveniently at hand. In
the petrified forest country there was
no material SO suitable and so easily
obtained as the silicified logs, and it
is natural that the Indians should have
utilized them in this way. They fur
nished very beautiful building stone,
but aesthetic considerations are of
secondary Importance from the abo-
riginal viewpoint. --...
1.-The prehistoric dwellers in that
part of the country were much better
than their descendants of to-
lay. Not only did they erect great
of cut stone, sometimes of
gigantic size, but they laid the courses
With the utmost neatness, plastered
The walls and added finally coat of |
Some Of the edifces which |
they left behind, although now in
ruins, are magnificent monuments to
heir architectural skill. Occasionally,
200, these buildings were adorned with |
'upurb round towers, suggesting a |
LIKENESS to those of medieval Norman
castles.
'When DR.. Hough started on his ex-
'edition last spring I suggested to
lin that he should make sort of pot
cry map of the region. Some of the
most interesting remains found in the
ossil forest and its neighborhood are
BOTS, which are of several distinct
ypes. One type is the so-called cooled
vare;' another is the 'polychrome' and
) third is the gray pottery. The
oiled ware seems to be the most an
ient kind, though some of it is still