Year: 1872

The Petrified Forest of California.


From the Alta California


The petrifed forest" discovered near
CalIstoga last June, or then fist made
known to the general public, is one Of
the wonders of the State. The name as
adopted by common usage CONVEYS an
erroneous impression, for there is no
forest nor any petrifed tree in a stand
ing position. There are parts of a dozen
petriied trees lying down and scattered
over an area of about three hundred
yards square. The largest is five feet
In diameter and about fifteen feet long.
with nothing to indicate what became
of the remainder of the tree. In no
case have any petrifed branches or
leaves been found, nor more than twen-
ty feet of the trunk of any one tree.
The petri6cation is complete. All the
woody fibre has disappeared and has
been replaced by grayish crystalization
that seems to consist mainly of carbon
ate of lime. The grain of the wood is
distinctly preserved in appearance, and
also in the firmness of crystalization, for
the petri6cations split readily with the
grain, SO that there is no difficulty in
getting long and straight splinters. The
ground near the trunks is covered with
large and small splinters, which per-
son ignorant of the vicinity of petrifca-
tions would not suspect, at first sight,
to be of any material but ordinary
wood, discolored by the weather. Knot
holes and fractures are found in the
stone, and occasionally holes lined with
transparent crystals of carbonate of
lime.


One of the most singular features of
this forest" is that every stone trunk
is broken acl oss transversly, and at
every break the end is not SO smooth as
if sawed, but more smooth than a trunk
broken in its vegetable condition could
be. The wood had certainly turned to
stone, or been replaced by stone before
the trunk broke. But the pieces are
usually short, not more than two or
three feet long-and the stone is strong,
and piece of fifteen feet in length,
supported at the ends, would probably
not break by its own weight. We do
not know that any person has broken
these trunks by design, and we have no
way of explaining the fractures except
by supposing that the trunks were pet
ritied while upright, and were after
wards broken by falling.


Mayor Snyder informs US that while
he was Superintendent of the Buena
Vista Vinicultural Company, piece of
petrifed tree, about sixteen inches
through and two feet long, with square
ends, was found above the wine cellar,
which is cut into tufa; and on the adj
jacent vineyard of Mr.. Gundlach a
similar piece was found. From the
Buena Vista tract to the petriied forest,
the distance in a direct line is probably
twenty-five miles, SO that the petriica-
ton of large trees and the peculiar
| fractures are not confined to small
| space.


The tree was probably redwood. The
stone splits better than the common
white oak, and the grain is closer than
some fir which we have looked at; and
the trees are too large for any other
genus growing in the neighborhood save
the sequoia. In the largest tree we
counted ten rings of annual layers of
wood within an inch, near the heart,
and twenty-eight rings near the out
side. The rings grow thinner as the
diameter of the tree increases. Several
weeks ago we copied an account of the
finding of two lizards in these petrifed
trees, the idea being conveyed that the
lizards had been surrounded by solid
stone ever since the petrifcation oc-
CURED. We are satisfied that there is
no good foundation for such an idea ;
and that the lizards ha0 crawled into
cracks of these petrifed trees within a
few months, just as they do ointo crevices
of any rock that gives them conve-
nient shelter. Instead of living for
100000 years. these little reptiles had
probably not celebrated more than one
anniversary of their birthday. The
petrifed forest is an important fact, and
the world will probably hear much
more of it from learned men. It is
within two hundred yards of the Calls
toga and Santa Rosa stage road, and
tourists leaving here in the morning
can see all there is to see and be back
here by noon the next day.