364 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



siderable depth. Over the entire area the trees lie scattered in all 

 conceivable positions and in fragments of all sizes, sometimes resem- 

 bling a pile of cart-wheels. A tree one hundred and fifty feet in 

 length is often found broken up into as many sections of almost uni- 

 form length, presenting the appearance of having been savred asunder 

 for shingle-blocks by some prehistoric forester. 



Again, we find a giant tree broken into countless fragments, rang- 

 ing in size from a small pebble to a fair-sized bowlder. Perfect-shaped 

 cubes, ready to be polished and used for paper-weights, are also found. 

 These multiplied fractures are the result of alternate heat and cold 

 acting on the water collected in the fissures of the tree. 



The highest point in the park is some two hundred feet above the 

 surrounding level, and it is here that the buried trees can be seen to 

 the best advantage. Some of them are one hundred and fifty feet 

 long and ten feet in diameter, and lie exposed in all conceivable posi- 

 tions. One section of a tree, which has been broken up, measures 

 eight feet in diameter, ten feet in length, and weighs several tons. 

 The tree was originally about two hundred feet long. Some pieces of 

 the trunks of these trees, which were brought to New York, ranged 

 from eight inches to three feet in diameter, and from twenty-five to 

 one thousand pounds in weight. The perfect preservation of these 

 trunks is remarkable. The rings are so distinctly visible as to con- 

 vince even the most incredulous of their organic origin. 



The most interesting points in the park have been suggestively 

 named. The Agate or Natural Bridge, Agate Gulch, Amethyst Point, 

 Fort Jasper, etc. 



The most remarkable feature of the park, and a phenomenon per- 

 haps unparalleled, is the Natural Bridge, of agatized wood, formed 

 by a tree, spanning a caSon forty-five feet in depth and fifty-five in 

 width. In addition to the span, fully fifty feet of the tree rests on one 

 side, making the tree visible for a length of over one hundred feet. 

 Both ends of the tree are imbedded in the sandstone. It averages 

 three and a half feet in diameter, four feet at the thickest part, and 

 three at the smallest. Where the bark does not adhere, the character- 

 istic colors of jasper and agate are to be seen. 



Although silicified wood is found in many localities throughout the 

 world, nowhere is it so beautifully colored as at this place. Here we 

 have every imaginable shade of red, yellow, brown, and green. Some- 

 times the colors appear in distinct spots, forming a mottled appear- 

 ance ; then, again, all blend so imperceptibly as to make a much more 

 pleasing and harmonious effect than the decided banding of the agate, 

 where the lines of demarkation between the colors are so distinct as to 

 become obtrusive. The colors above mentioned are often relieved by 

 white, black, and gray, and by transparent spaces of brilliant quartz- 

 crystals, or — as sometimes occurs — of amethyst. 



Broken section's of the hollow trunks are often lined with amethyst. 



