In the Petrified Forests of Arizona

IN THE PETRIFIED FORESTS OF ARIZONA. The scenes herewith presented were photographed by Elder George Albert Smith, on his recent visit to Arizona. They give a glimpse of the wonderful petrified forests of that state in which large, once flourishing trees have been turned to stone through mineral action. In certain places, the Colorado river has cut through six thousand feet of strata, exposing formations down to carboniferous and tertiary marine strata; and it has been said, as recorded in Americana, that every period of the world's history since the dawn of life is represented in the geology of Arizona. Near Holbrook, Navajo county, is a wonderful chalcedony forest, with trunks four feet thick, cracked into exquisitely colored blocks. Chalcedony is a mineral, a variety of quartz, resembling milk diluted with water, semi-transparent and more or less clouded with circles and spots, and is found usually in cavities of rocks uncrystallized. In the photos may be seen trees and parts of trees turned to stone, perhaps through the penetrating action of this or other mineral, and left upon the dreary desert as witnesses of the green forests that flourished here in ages past.

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