PETRIFIED FORESTS OF ARIZONA. 293 



in the United States National Museum, who visits the region of the fossil forests in 

 Arizona at the instance of the Hon. Binger Hermann, Commissioner of the General 

 Land Office, with a view to obtaining information for tlie use of the Commissioner 

 in connection with a request of the legislature of Arizona that certain lands in the 

 vicinity of Holbrook, known as the ''Petrified Forest," be set aside for a national 

 park. 



Any courtesy which may be extended to him will be duly appreciated by the 

 Institution. 



S. P. Langley, Secretary. 



Equipped with these instructions and credentials I left San Francisco 

 on November 1, 1899, and proceeded direct to Arizona. After a week 

 of general investigation in the western part of the Triassic terrane, I 

 arrived at Holbrook on the 9th and entered the special area of the 

 petrified forests on the 10th. I went over the ground with consider- 

 able thoroughness and visited about all the localities of interest, taking 

 full notes of the scenic, geologic, and scientific features. 



SCENIC FEATURES. 



With regard to the first of these, viz, the scenic aspect, I can safely 

 say that it has never been exaggerated by any who have attempted to 

 describe this region. The pictures given in the letter of the Assistant 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, above quoted, are not over- 

 drawn, and the more or less glowing descriptions of Mollhausen, 

 Marcou, Newberry, and other early explorers fall far short of what 

 might be truly said from this point of view. These petrified forests 

 may be properly classed among the natural wonders of America, and 

 every reasonable effort should be made not only to preserve them 

 from destructive influences but also to make their existence and true 

 character known to the people. 



Some of the most important considerations that may be urged in 

 favor of the importance of this region compared with other petrified 

 forests rest upon its geological relations. In the first place, it is 

 much more ancient than the petrified forests of the Yellowstone 

 National Park, of certain parts of Wyoming, and of the Calistoga 

 deposits in California. These latter are of Tertiary age, while the 

 Arizona forests belong far back in Mesozoic time, probably to the 

 Triassic formation. The difference in their antiquity is therefore 

 many millions of years. Scattered blocks of silicified wood do indeed 

 occur in the Trias at other points, but this is the only region in which 

 they are in such abundance as to deserve the name of a petrified forest. 



In the second place, there is no other petrified forest in which the 

 wood assumes so many varied and interesting forms and colors, and it 

 is these that present the chief attraction for the general public. The 

 state of mineralization in which much of this wood exists almost 

 places them among the gems or precious stones. Not only are chal- 



