306 PETRIFIED FORESTS OF ARIZONA. 



it will eventually be to the interest of the railroad company to provide 

 such, as also suitable conveyances and guides. 



The importance of the cooperation of the railroad in this matter 

 struck me so forcibly that I did not consider my mission completed 

 until I had made some inquiries along this line. In returning from 

 the field, therefore, on my arrival at Chicago I called on President 

 E. P. Ripley, of the Santa Fe system, to obtain his views. It chanced 

 that Mr, Frank M. Murphy, whom I had met on the train, as above 

 mentioned, was in Mr. Ripley's office at the time I called, and quite a 

 discussion of the general project was entered into. Mr. Ripley 

 expressed a willingness to cooperate with the Government in the 

 matter to the fullest extent in case the proposed action was taken. He 

 was much interested in certain of the scientific aspects of the case that 

 I presented. Mr. Murphy very correctly pointed out that the fact of 

 setting the district apart by the Government as a national park would 

 do more than anything else that could be done to make it known to 

 the public, thus constituting a legitimate advertisement for the road, 

 and working in the joint interest of the company and the people. 



EECOMMENDATIONS. 



After all that has been said it scarcely seems necessary to make 

 specific recommendations. I have endeavored to set forth the facts 

 somewhat fully, and they will doubtless carry with them their own 

 recommendations. But it may not be wholly supei*fluous, by way of 

 summing up, to specify the suggestions to which the facts seem to 

 give rise in a more succinct form. 



1. It seems desirable that the portion of country covered by this 

 report — at least all that falls within the designation of petrified for- 

 ests — ^be withdrawn from entry at once, pending further steps in the 

 matter. The amount withdrawn might be considerably larger than 

 that included in the boundaries above specified, in order that no impor- 

 tant feature shall be excluded from the tract finally embraced in the 

 park. At present, so far as I could learn, there is only one claim filed 

 on the entire area. This is a claim to a quarter section in the upper 

 forest, filed by Mr. Adam Hanna. At the time that it was proposed 

 to manufacture emery out of the silicified wood several other claims 

 were filed, but, on the failure of the scheme, they were abandoned. 

 Several horse herders have located on the arroyo, or creek, in the 

 center of the lower or principal forest, and have erected a cabin, there, 

 but I understand that they have filed no claims and are there merely 

 by sufferance. They are, however, doing no damage to the forests. 



2. There is needed a more extended and accurate survey than I was 

 able to make of the proper boundaries of the park. The survey 

 should be made in part by geologists and vegetable paleontologists, in 



