File:American forestry (1910-1923) (17958009330).jpg

Title: American forestry
Identifier: americanforestry201914amer (find matches)
Year: 1910-1923 (1910s)
Authors: American Forestry Association
Subjects: Forests and forestry
Publisher: Washington, D. C. : American Forestry Association
Contributing Library: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden
Digitizing Sponsor: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden

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A FOREST OF STONE 717
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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 manv places contain fragments of fossil wood, which indicates that trunks of trees must be near at hand. An en\imeration 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 prestmiably more abun- dant in the beginning, and that, in general, coniferous wood decays less

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