Arkansas, and known in that region as Ouachita (" oil stone "),
is sometimes employed in jewelry.
As if the mineral kingdom had not furnished innumerable
materials in the form of decorative and precjous stones, vegetation has added a beautiful substance for the same purpose, in
the nature of petrifactions, which rival the agate and other
gems in the variety and richness of their hues, in the brilliancy of their lustre, and the hardness and compactness of
their texture. Silicified woods of different kinds are found in
Colorado, California, and other parts of the West, of suitable
colors and hardness for ornaments, but none are comparable
to those found in Arizona. A petrified forest has recently been
discovered in this territory, covering an area of one thousand
acres with prostrate trees, some of them more than one hundred
and fifty feet in length, and from five to ten in diameter, which
have been converted, by some mysterious process of nature,
into trunks of precious stones, displaying all the prismatic
colors in their varied combinations. Here we have representations of the amethyst, topaz, jasper, chalcedony, onyx, ruby,
carbuncle, opal, malachite, agate, and others.
This silicified or opalized wood is of sufficient hardness to
cut glass, and requires the diamond to work it, thus constituting
one of the most desirable materials for fancy ornamental articles,
mosaics, and jewelry. The Chalcedony Manufacturing Company, as it' is called, has been organized for the purpose of
utilizing this natural product and introducing it into the fine
and useful arts, under the superintendence of Mr. William
Adams, Jr., and Mr. George Stone, both of California, who
have made several visits to the region of this remarkable
*' forest," in order to study its interesting features.
The species of trees which have undergone so wonderful a
transformation, the time required for the process, and the
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