A FOREST OF STONE 



717 



PROSTRATE TRUNK OF FOSSIL REDWOOD. 



THIS IS ONE OF THE LARGEST OF THE FOSSIL TREES ON SPECIMEN RIDGE FOREST AND IS SO LIKE THE LIVING TREE THAT 

 IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DISTINGUISH THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WOOD AT THE DISTANCE OF A FEW YARDS. 



more than 2 feet above the surface. 

 No remarkably large trunks were ob- 

 served at this locality, the average diam- 

 eter being perhaps less than 2 feet. 



Mount Norris, which is hardly to be 

 separated from the Thunderer, also 

 bears a small fossil forest. The trees are 

 of about the same size and character as 

 those in the larger mountain. Fossil 

 forests of greater or less extent, com- 

 posed mainly of upright trunks, are ex- 

 posed also on Baronett Peak, Bison 

 Peak, Abiathar Peak, Crescent Hill, and 

 Miller Creek. In fact, there is hardly a 

 square mile of the area of the north- 

 eastern portion of the park that is 

 without its fossil forest, scattered trunks, 

 or erratic fragments. 



The vast area east of the Yellowstone 

 Lake and the region still farther east, 

 beyond the limits of the park, have not 

 been thoroughly explored, but enough 

 is known to make it certain that these 

 areas contain more or less fossil wood. 

 The stream beds in these areas in many 



places contain fragments of fossil wood, 

 which indicates that trunks of trees must 

 be near at hand. 



An enumeration ofthe kinds of trees 

 that are represented by the woods in 

 the fossil forests of the Yellowstone Na- 

 tional Park is interesting. By studying 

 thin sections under the microscope it 

 is possible to distinguish the different 

 kinds with reasonable accuracy and the 

 following species have been detected: 



Magnificent redwood, Alderson's pine, 

 amethyst pine, laurel, aromatic bay, 

 Hayden's sycamore, Knowlton's syca- 

 more, Felix's buckthorn, Lamar oak, 

 and Knowlton's oak. 



Although only three kinds of conif- 

 erous trees have thus far been found in 

 the fossil forests of the park, fully 95 

 per cent of all the trunks belong to these 

 three species. The preponderance of 

 conifers is probably due to the facts 

 that they were presumably more abun- 

 dant in the beginning, and that, in 

 general, coniferous wood decays less 



