"I can't make out," rejoined Nat in a troubled tone, "it's sort of uncanny isn't it?"
The others agreed.
"Ugh; it remindts me of a grafeyardt," shivered the German, as he looked about him at the bare stumps rising black and ghostlike in the pale moonlight.
Suddenly Cal, who had been gazing about him, shouted an explanation of the mystery.
"Boys, we're in a petrified forest!" he exclaimed.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MIDNIGHT ALARM.
The boys would have been glad to explore the petrified forest that night had it been practicable. They had read of the mysterious stone relics of ancient woods, which exist in the remote Sierras, but they had never dreamed they would stumble upon one so opportunely. However, even had they been less tired, it would have been out of the question to examine the strange place more thoroughly that night.