756 GEOLOGY OF THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. 



W. H. Holmes, the discoverer of these fossil forests, shows the impression 

 first made by the sight of them : 



As we ride up the trail that meanders the smooth river bottom, we have but 

 to turn our attention to the cliffs ou the right hand to discover a multitude of the 

 bleached trunks of the ancient forests. In the steeper middle portion of the moun- 

 tain face, rows of upright trunks stand out on the ledges like the columns of a ruined 

 temple. On the more gentle slopes, farther down, but where it is still too steep to 

 support vegetation, save a few pines, the petrified trunks fairly cover the surface, 

 and were at first supposed by us to be the shattered remains of a recent forest. 1 



Fossil trees or fragments of wood of greater or less size are found in 

 many parts of the Park, but their distribution is mainly confined to the 

 northern and northeastern portions. The forests of standing trees are all 

 found in the vicinity of the Lamar River, the most striking being exposed 

 on the slopes and cliffs of Amethyst Mountain and Specimen Ridge. Nearly 

 all of these forests are easily accessible from the well-traveled road between 

 the Mammoth Hot Springs and the town of Cooke, Montana. 



As the visitor enters the area drained by the Lamar River and by 

 the smaller streams running into the Yellowstone below the Grand Canyon, 

 evidences of proximity to the fossil forests are soon at hand. In the bed 

 of every stream pieces of wood, often of considerable size, may be found. 

 These pieces have in many cases been carried miles from their original 

 source by the torrents incident to the melting of the snows in spring. In 

 this way the pieces of wood have become rounded and worn and at remote 

 distances are changed into smooth, rounded pebbles. 



The first forest to be visited is near Yanceys, and is known as Yanceys 

 Fossil Forest. It is located about 1 mile south of the hotel, on the middle 

 slope of a hill that rises about 1,000 feet above' the little valley. It is 

 reached by an easy trail, and as one approaches, a number of trunks are 

 observed standing upright among the stumps and trunks of living trees, 

 and so much resembling them that a near view is necessary to convince the 

 visitor that they are really fossil trunks. Only two rise to a considerable 

 height above the surface. The larger one is about 15 feet high and 13 feet 

 in circumference; the other is a little smaller. The roots are not exposed, 

 so that it is impossible to determine the position of the part in view. Its 

 original length can not, of course, be ascertained. It is also impossible to 



1 U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey of the Terr., Hayden's Twelfth Annual Report, 1878 U883), p. 48. 



