THE TWO OLDEST TREES 



in length and in diameter up to sixty 

 inches, are again under the influence of 

 Arizona's blue sky, her unmatched sun- 

 light, and her never to be forgotten 

 moonlight. They are falling out of bed, 

 as it were, and you meet them as they 

 lie upon the floor or in pits at a lower 

 level than their long used resting place, 

 which had been previously eroded for 

 their reception by the God who gave 

 them their birth away back before the 

 Rocky Mountain were born, and when 

 what we now call Arizona and Califor- 

 nia was a level, swampy country, like the 

 Gulf States of the present day, Louisiana, 

 Mississippi and Florida. 



When a lad of but nine years of age, 

 in the year 1855, I first heard of "the pet- 

 rified trees" of the Little Colorado River 

 of the far West. I heard the tale from 

 the lips of Captain Whipple (afterwards 

 General Whipple) who was killed at 

 Chancellorsville, Va., during the Civil 



10 



