Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1883 — IN FORESTS OF STONE. [ARTICLE]

IN FORESTS OF STONE.

Parte of the World. H w York Ban. T had a queer experience onoev” s gentleman who had been examining the collection of trees and woods in the old Arsenal Building; Central Park, said, “and these hard woods remind me of it I was prospecting in Arizonia with a party of friends, and we had had rough luck. We had a young Irishman as eook that I had picked up in Omaha, who was worth more than any ten men I ever saw in keeping up the spirits of the crowd. The lower ttye provisions the more jovial he was, and Fm hanged if he didn’t seem to have the blues one day when we shot a bear and were on the edge of starvation. One day when we had been picking up wood for a fire he came to me and said: ‘Beggin’ yer pardon, Master Tom, but av it’s all the same I’d loike tb take the back track.' “ ‘What’s the trouble?’ I asked. “ 'lt moight be that Ibe afraid av gettin’ so fat I oouldn’t walk back, bnt divil a bit o’ that,’ said he solemnly. ‘But did ye ever hear tell o’ the shtory av Ara-bay-an Noights? Sorrer the tooime I’ve heard Father Clineby relate it in the onld counthry. It’s all about a oounthry where the men, women and children turned to stone. I always took it to be a joke, the results av too much lamin’, bnt divil a bit when we’ve struck the self same place. Te laugh, is it? Cast yer eye on that' and held out a perfect limb of a tree of hard, solid rock, while in the other hand he had a large petrified oyster. ‘**Why that’s petrified wood,’ I exclaimed. “ ‘Yes,’ rejoined Pat, ‘and we’ll all he in the same fix if we kape on. Tm for the back trail’ “It was a long time before we could make him understand the situation. Bnt it was a curious sight. We had camped on the edge of a forest that had actually turned to stone. All about were the great stumps that at first we had taken for stones, but found, on closer examination, to be tress turned into stone. Some were flat on the ground, others broken into hundreds of pieces, while all around were bones and shells all turned to stone also. How long they had been there no one knows.”

Stone forests are in many parts of the world. A number of stony trees were recently received at the Smithsonian Institute from the West. In many oases they are hardened by the peouliar atmosphere as they stand, and in others they are buried, the parts being replaced by mineral matter. The Little Colorado River in Arizonia[has long been a famous locality for such finds. At one place more than 1,500 oords of trunks and sections of logs were found by Government surveyors. Most of them were siliefied. Many are 7 feet or more in diameter and from 20 to 70 feet in height. The greater part of them have probably been covered in the marl that originally k was 1,000 fee thick. Some of the trees are changed to jasper, assuming numerous huee,.while others resemble opal, and, when brbken open, the core is often found lined w«|i crystals of the most beautiful tints. Louisiana and Ohio are noted localities for fossil trees. In the former State several years ago, in turning up the ground an ancient forest layer was unearthed, and in succession two others below it; and scientists judge from the size of the treee that from the time of the first layer to the last 60,000 years must have elapsed. In the remains of the glacial drift in Ohio old forests are often discovered. Some have been buried beneath the water by the sinking of the land. Some of the Ohio trees are not entirely changed into stone, being yet soft, while others are found in all stages from rock to porous sponge matter.

In some parts of the Island of Antigua one of the British leeward group, there are most remarkable examples of stone forests. The trees are in many instances of great size, presenting a curious sight with living birds perched upon their leafless and stony ltmbs. The fossil palms are the most remarkable of all those stony forms. They generally have a cylindrical stem, rising to a great height, crowned with a canopy of foliage that stands upon the. rook in high relief. Some wonderful stone forests have been unearthed by the workers in the building stone quarries of the Isle of Portland, from whioh eomes the famous building stone. The workmen had out down to what they termed a dirt bed, and suddenly came to the stony forest Standing upright There were hundreds of trees a few feet apart The tops appeared to have been wrenched off, but many were forty feet in height. On some of the limbs were the delicate stems, and here and there leaves and twigs. In Van Diemen’s Land similar forests ore known, the great trunks being calcified and partly silioified, while others are ohanged into chalcedony. They were found in most cases erect, with the

fL- nafainil W|nro TYIATtV sh collect wood brought in a load, complaining ofits heaviness. They are used, however, being burned for lime.