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Show BY PATH AND TRAIL. 187 point where** it would pay to grind up the trees. Out of this agatized wood have been manufactured most beauti ful table tops, mantels, clock cases, pedestals and orna mental articles. But the cost, of sawing, chiseling and polishing make the goods very expensive. To give you an example. When Tiffany's workmen started to saw off a section from one of these logs to form a, pedestal for the silver vase of the Bartholdi presentation, they began with a six- inch saw of Sheffield steel aided with diamond dust. Sawing eight hours a day, they were five days cutting through a four- foot log which wore their six- inch saw to a ribbon one- half inch wide. Although there are millions of tons of the petrified material scattered around this region, the lust of gain and accumulation, which be comes a passion with some of us, would soon strip the forest to the naked desert if congress had not intervened to save it. For forty years ' despoilers have been rifling the land, gathering and shipping the silicified wood to the east. Much has been sold to museums and private collectors, but much more has been shipped to dealers and manufacturers. Visitors to the park may carry away with them a few specimens, but no dealing or trafficking in the precious material is now permitted. |
