Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-09-28
CARVED BY NATURE.
WORK OF WIND AND WAVE IN
WESTERN WAITE.
Curious Stone Formations and Noun
tairs of Shells That Are Found
on the Plains Of Yuha,
Colorado.

Colorado.
There Is a section of the Colorado des-
srt where nature has left some remark.
able records. She has visited the region,
alternately, with fire and water, and has
left it with neither. 1t is the most
desolate, wild, barren, forbidding part
of the desert, and it Is stunned alike
by man and beast, says the Los An
geles Times.
That there IL good and sufficient rea,
son for avoiding this locality is at
tested by numbers of graves-nameless
for the most part-found In the ter
rible region. These graves are SIM
pie affairs, merely mounds Of earth
with a border of stones around each
and a pile OF rocks two or three feet
high at the head. Each tells the story
of a tragedy of heat, thirst and death.
AS recently as December IL, 1904.
the bones of thirst victim were laid
in one of these lonely, howerless, turf
less graves on the plains of Yuha.
The plain now lies nearly 100 feet be-
low the level of the sea, and the rocks
of the plain and the bases of the noun.
tains are washed and eroded in won
derful manner. Mingling with the
burnt stones and volcanic debris are
rocks worn by the waves and shaped
into hundreds of fantastic forms.
There are many acres of these stone
curiosNies, and certain sections Of the
field seem devoted to certain shapes
and figures.
For instance, one passes through q
region which he at once names the
cabbage patch, for 1t presents the ap-
pearance of a field of those vegetables
which have turned to stone. The
waves have worn the rocks into round
powders about the size Of the vege-
table, which they 80 much resem.
BILE, and have cut into the globes.
Eliminating them in perfect imitation OF
the leafy layers of the garden variety.
Another locality is devoted almost
exclusively to dinner plates. Thou
sands of rounded thin disks are scat
tered over the plain, or are piled scores
deep in singular piles, each piece
shaped exactly like the crockery which
adorns our tables, and quite as thin
and symmetrical.
Another section Of this truly won
derful region is given almost wholly
to dumbbells. These vary in size from
pieces weighing one or two pounds az
to those seemingly calculated for exer-
cising the muscles Of q giant and
weighing 30 or 40 pounds each. In
alost every instance these natural
dumbbells are we'll balanced, the balls
at either end of the connecting piece
being of the same size and weight.
There is in this plain an arsenal
also. While guns and swords and bay
onets and powder are not there tc
be found, there are thousands of can
non balls varying In size from two and
three-inch balls to those fit for the big
13-ineh guns of modern warfare; and
all are of stone, all formed In ma,
lures workshop.
There are other objects innumerable
There are stone roses, stone lhies
stone tulips, stone leaves, stone birds.
stone animals, stone quoitS, stone orna.
ments in varied and unique designs.
stone canes-in fact, almost everything
conceivable in nature or art initiated
in stone on the plain of Yuha.
In one portion Of Yuha rise two
hills, or small mountains. One might
mistake them in the distance for an
cient craters, but when he approaches
the eminences he discovers them to be
monuments to an ancient life-the rec
ords of species Aow extinct.
They are shell mountains, great beds
OF prehistoric bivalves, which were left
stranded whom that ancient sea swept
back from the region and left a dry
and desolate land.
One of these mountains-the large
one-is composed wholly of large
rough shells, much larger but less
elongated than the shells Of the mod.
ern oyster, which in some respects they
so much resemble as to lead to the sus-
picion that they are the remains OF
the ancestors of cur much priced BIZ
valves.
The lesser hill is composed Of tiny
shells of prehistoric type Of brachiop-
oda. Like the larger shells they are
found, except on the surface, in an I'M
disturbed state, both valves Of nearly
every shell being found in position
Although the mollusk dwellers OF
these shells vanished several centuries
ago. so perfect are the shells one al
most expects, when he opens the valves
of the shell, to find the living creature
within.