Douglass : A Geological Reconnaissance. 219 



coal, and layer lies on layer apparently undisturbed except by atmos- 

 pheric agencies. As the train glides along, if one picks out an easily 

 distinguishable layer and tries to follow it with the eye, it appears to 

 dodge in and out along the bluffs, now shooting in a zig-zag manner 

 into the distance, then in the same way approaching, until it suddenly 

 seems almost to strike the observer in the face. 



Scattered over the flat at the foot of the bluffs and in nearly every 

 position along their uneven and furrowed slopes are large petrified 

 stumps and sections of trees. In some places these are so numerous 

 that they look like the broken fragments of some hard stratum of 

 rock. This region is called " the petrified forest." When one ap- 

 proaches the bluffs, the stratum or strata, from which these logs and 

 stumps originally came, can be seen with the logs in the position in 

 which they were buried countless millenniums ago. The washing away 

 of the soft strata has left these large fragments in all sorts of positions 

 from this stratum to the foot of the bluff. These silicified logs are 

 almost indestructible, so, as the bluffs slowly recede, the wrecks of 

 this ancient forest are left scattered over the arid plain at a relatively 

 much lower level than that which the luxurious forest once occupied, 

 though it is probably actually many hundreds of feet higher above the 

 level of the sea. 



It would be interesting to know what kinds of trees these were, 

 what birds nested and sang in their branches, what other animals made 

 their homes in their trunks and leafy tops and wandered or crawled 

 in their shade, and what beings inhabited the streams, lakes, and marshes 

 in which these layers of sand, mud, and coal were deposited ages ago. 

 Fortunately many of the leaves of the trees have left beautiful im- 

 pressions on the rocks, and roots of scouring rushes and shells of fresh- 

 water mollusca are preserved in places ; so these tell us something of 

 the vegetable and animal life. When these beds shall have been care- 

 fully examined over a large area, other "interesting things may be 

 brought to light. Some of the names of the trees whose leaves are 

 found here will be given later. 



The descent from Sully Springs toward Medora on the Little Mis- 

 souri River is very rapid. The distance is 8. 2 miles and the descent 

 308 feet. As the beds are nearly level one descends to lower and 

 lower strata. 



At Scoria, between Sully Springs and Medora, the coal has been 

 burned out and the clays and sandstones have been baked, making 



