CHAPTER V 



A Fossil Forest 



During my absence the boys, while exploring the hills, 

 had come upon one stretch where a temporary stream had 

 cut a deep gulch, and two hundred feet below the oyster- 

 shell layer had uncovered an area a mile or so in length and 

 about 200 feet in width (the width of the ledge), which 

 appeared to be an ancient fossil forest, where tree trunks 

 from a few inches in diameter up to over five feet thick 

 were lying scattered in every direction, while the ground 

 between was strewn with the fragments of hosts of other 

 logs which the frost and weather had shattered. Generally 

 the wood was of the straw-brown color characteristic of 

 modern wood which has lain outdoors some time ; and the 

 chips appeared so like recent wood that it was hard to 

 believe it was not, until one lifted it and felt the weight and 

 hardness. Even so, Shumway was not entirely convinced 

 until he brought some home and tried it with acid. 



As we went from log to log and saw the perfect grain 

 of this one and of that, here an old stump with its roots 

 reaching out, there a small palm, and in other spots tiny 

 veins of coal indicating small branches, we were carried out 

 of the present back to the different conditions under which 

 these trees had lived. During the whole forenoon we did 

 nothing but go from one specimen to another, and then 

 over them again. Finally, however, we called ourselves 

 back to the present and became collectors once more. 



The predominant tree had a close, fine grain not unlike 

 our maple. Others were much coarser in fiber, resembling 

 the pines and sequoias of today, of which type there were 

 no less than three varieties. Two sorts of palms with their 

 pithy stems occurred occasionally, besides a few smaller 

 types which we could not recognize. 



