Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1884 — A Petrified Forest. [ARTICLE]

A Petrified Forest.

The visitor to the petrified forest near Corrizo, on the Little Colorado, will begin to see the signs of petrifaction hours before he reaches the wonder; here and there, at almost every step in the road, small pieces of detached limbs and larger stumps of trees may be seen almost hidden in the white sand. The petrified stumps, limbs, and in fact whole trees,, lie about on all sides. The action of the waters for hundreds of years has gradually washed away the high hills round about, and the trees that once covered the high table-lands now lie in the valley beneath. Immense trunks, some of which will measure five feet in diameter, are broken and scattered over a surfacebFSOO acres. Limbs and twigs cover the sand in every direction, and the visitor is puzzled as to where he shall begin to gather the beautiful specimens that lie within easy reach. There are numerous blocks or trunks of this petrified wood that have the appearance, for all the world, of having just been cut down by the woodman’s ax, and the chips are thrown around on the ground, so that one instinctively picks them up, as he would in the log-camps of Michigan and Pennsylvania. Many of the small particles, and even the whole hearts of some trees, have now become thoroughly crystallized, and the beautiful colored cakes sparkle in the sunshine like so many diamonds. Every color of the rainbow is duplicated in these crystals, and those of an amethyst color would pass the eye of a novice for a real stone. The grain of wood is plainly shown in nearly every specimen—making the pieces more beaut il'ul than ever. Although the party went armed with pick and crowbar, they were entirely unnecessary, fpr thousands of broken fragments can be gathered all about you, and the sunlight striking upon the., crystallized particles, points out their hiding places to the eager searcher after curiosities. —A I b ugu erque Journa I.