The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-01-27
ONCE CYPRESS FOREST
Stumps of Colossal Trees Found
in Washington Excavation.
Preserved Through Period of Time
That Antedates Earliest Historical
Records by at Least $1,000
Years.

-
Washington.-"Forty centuries look
down upon you," said Napoleon to his
army. drawn up before the pyramids
in Egypt. In Washington today 2oo'
perhaps 800, centuries look up at you.
They look from the stumps of colossal
cypress trees that grew 30 feet below
the present level of the ground, away
back in the geological past when the
world was still in the ~making-even
before the age of the last ADVANCE OF
the ice sheet which one covered the
northern part of the continent.
When the steam %shoyelers, VINO are
excayating the great pit for the
Walker hotel on Connecticut avenue,
began TO strike stulnps and logs on
trees that were neither decayed nor
fossilized, they thought they were out
Of luck, but wher the numerous
biologists and biologists Of Washing
ton heard of the discovery they eonsid-
cred that they were in luck. Groups
of scientific men almost daily watch
the progress of the excavation ana
marvel at the manner in which stu1npS,
knees" trunks, seeds. small branches
and ever leaves of the wood eternal
have been preserved throughout a
period of. time that a~ntedates the
earliest historical records by at leas,
$1,000 years.
The trees themselves may represent
a thousand years. Their remains are
found in three more or less distinct
horizontal zones in what was at n
time a swamp. Thus ii appears that
perhaps first one then another ana
finally a third generation of giant
Expresses, probably at least 200 years
old, followed each other as the swamp
gradually filed up.
Scores of stumps were found in the
excavation, which covers an area If
about an acre and a half, that were
not less than six feet in diameter.
Many were found between six and
fourteen feet and the workmen assoc
hat some of the fragments of stumps
indicated that some of the trees grow
ing in this ancient swamp We're % feet
thick, though these may have been
clumps and not a single stump.
The fiber of the wood is well pre-
served and easily recognizable as that
Of cypress. Both sapwood and heart
wood are preserved and in some cases
ever the bark. When first taken out
the wood is rather heavy, being com
pletely saturated with water. 1t is
firm and compact, although it saws
easily, and splits evenly. After a few
days exposure the water ~eyaporates
and the wood becomes very dry and
light, and cracks.
The preservation Of hundreds OF
tons of wood through such . Ions
period must be largely attributed 70
the protection afforded by the waite
and ooze of the swamp. What happened
was that the trees after dying, de
cayed to the level of the water of the
swamp which preserved them from
that point down.
Fossil trees of much greater m
tiquity are not uncommon, but the re
mains of trees still in the original or
ganic condition. after the lapse of 50
long a period, are very ARE. Sound
wood has been found at Pompeii and
wooden houses and boats up to a thou
sand years are not uncommon. Pious
churchmen maintain that pieces of
the Holy Cross are still extant.
In the National museum here is a
piece of skin taken from a mastodon
whose carcass was refrigerated in the
remnant of a glacier in Siberia. 1t is
pointed out that if the scientists who
actually cooked and ate some of this
%, 000-year-old meat, had been aware
Of the cypress swamp in Washington
1t would have been possible to have
served the mammoth steaks planked
on equally antique wood.