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ADDENDUM. In the summer of 1919 a trip was made to the sequoia groves with three objects in view: (1) settling an uncertainty regarding the ring provisionally called 1580; (2) gathering material bearing on the relation of short-period cycles to topography; (3) investigating the causes of enlarged or gross rings. It is only the first of these topics which has an important bearing on the foregoing chapters.

The region near the General Grant National Park was visited and 12 new trees were very carefully selected as to their water-supply, drainage, and distance from other trees, and short radial samples were cut from them. It did not seem necessary to have these include more than the last 500 years of growth. The radial piece, therefore, was made very small, but especial attention was given to procuring a continuous and reliable record. Critical examination showed at once that occurrence of the ring 1580 was dependent on locality. The trees from the uplands, where identification was easy, largely failed to show the ring, but in specimens from swampy basins, where cross-identification was difficult and sometimes uncertain, the ring was nearly always present. A complete decision, therefore, in favor of its real existence was satisfactorily obtained and the necessary corrections were made in the foregoing text and in the tabular matter which follows. It seems likely that the year 1580, which this ring represents, was phenomenally deficient in moisture in the locality of these giant trees.

In addition to the 12 new trees added to the sequoia group, a cutting was made from the stump D-12, which had hitherto defied all attempts at satisfactory dating. A small piece going back about 800 years was cut from a part of the circumference, entirely free from compressed rings, about 4 feet away from the full sample cut in 1915. At the time of cutting, great care was taken to insure proper cross-identification between the inner end of the new piece and the former sample. But in the laboratory the new piece proved to carry a very excellent series of rings and the identification was everywhere very easy and sure, and all doubt about the dating of that particular tree to its earliest ring in 135 A. D., several inches away from its original center, was removed; therefore, it may now be included among those whose dating is entirely reliable.

A new group of 5 very old trees from near Flagstaff, has settled an uncertainty regarding the years 1463 and 1464 in the yellow pines (too late, however, to rectify figure 3 on page 25). It is now possible to carry a very fair cross-identification between the pines of Arizona and the sequoias of California through the whole five centuries of the former.


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 belonging to the group. But if other samples are taken in future years, this numbering will prevent confusion. All the 23 stumps are thus identified by a number in this series. I had hoped on this trip to find other trees as old as Huntington's three, and therefore searched carefully for the largest stumps. All those over 20 feet in diameter and a number of less size were estimated for age. This was done by measuring the average width of rings here and there along a radius and multiplying by the length of the radius. About 50 were thus tested. In many cases the result has proved to be within 50 years and sometimes much closer, but these estimations were not very reliable, there being several large mistakes in them. In attempting to pick out the oldest stumps among several thousand without spending much time or getting very far from camp, it is impossible to make these estimates with very great care. It was felt that much help would have been obtained from a small range-finder and telescope, the former to give the distance of the stump and the latter its diameter. In the course of a few days this would have saved many miles of tramping and the oldest trees would have been found more readily.

On the steep upland slopes above Camp 6, two trees were estimated at about 2,500 years in age. These were afterwards numbered D 18 and D 19. D 18 was an immense tree which was cut down in 1914 at the time a motion-picture company was operating in the sequoia forest. It is referred to by the lumbermen as the "Moving Picture Tree." It had to be blasted from the stump before it fell, and the stump was so completely shattered that no sample could be cut from it. In falling, the trunk of the tree split in halves through a large part of its length, and most of it remains where it fell. About 40 feet of logs were cut away between the ruins of the stump and the rest of the tree. Accordingly my sample was cut from the lower end of the broken top and at a point which had been about 50 feet above the ground.

Close by the location of No. 18, and on the steep upper hillside just below the track which extends on to Camp 7, is No. 19. A log from it rests uphill with its upper end at the railroad embankment. The section was taken from the stump nearly 60 feet below (see plate 5). Camp 7 was visited and used as a base for two days. It is 2 miles beyond Camp 6 on the ridge at the farther side of Windy Gulch. There are some very fine stumps close to the road that goes down from the camp into the basin, which were estimated to be 2,300 or 2,400 years old.

No. 16 was found high up in the gulch that extends toward the top of the mountain just south of the camp. The gulch faces toward the east and at the location of the tree has a slope of 15°. No. 17 comes from the basin some hundreds of feet below the camp. It was a wind-fall and the lumberman thought it might have been lying there a great many years. As it was a very large tree and of slow growth, it was

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Rh

In the foregoing investigation the following conclusions have been reached:

(1) The variations in the annual rings of individual trees over considerable areas exhibit such uniformity that the same rings can be identified in nearly every tree and the dates of their formation established with practical certainty.

(2) In dry climates the ring thicknesses are proportional to the rainfall with an accuracy of 70 per cent in recent years and this accuracy presumably extends over centuries; an empirical formula can be made to express still more closely this relationship between tree-growth and rainfall; the tree records therefore give us reliable indications of climatic cycles and of past climatic conditions.

(3) The tree's years for such records begins in the autumn.

(4) Double rings are caused by spring drought and are indicative of the distribution of rainfall throughout the year.

(5) Tree records may be used in the intensive study of the location of homogeneous meteorological conditions and in outlining meteorological districts.

(6) Certain areas of wet-climate trees in northern Europe give an admirable record of the sunspot numbers and some American wet-climate trees give a similar record, but with their maxima 1 to 3 years in advance of the solar maxima. It is possible to identify living trees giving this remarkable record and to ascertain the exact conditions under which they grow.

(7) Practically all the groups of trees investigated show the sunspot cycle or its multiples; the solar cycle becomes more certain and accurate as the area of homogeneous region increases or the time of a tree record extends farther back; this suggests the possibility of determining the climatic and vegetational reaction to the solar cycle in different parts of the world.

(8) A most suggestive correlation exists in the dates of maxima and minima found in tree-growth, rainfall, temperature and solar phenomena. The prevalence of the solar cycle or its multiples, the greater accuracy as area or time are extended, and this correlation in dates point toward a physical connection between solar activity and terrestrial weather.

(9) The tree curves indicate a complex combination of short periods including a prominent cycle of about 2 years.

(10) An instrument has been constructed, which promises special facility in the analysis of such periods.

The items enumerated above point to the general conclusion that near at hand and readily available in our forest areas is written a story of climatic cycles and solar relationship which in part at least is interpreted by the methods illustrated in the foregoing pages.


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The Martyrdom of Ignatius

 * The Martyrdom of Ignatius, from Tracts for the Times 1833
 * The Martyrdom of Ignatius (Roberts-Donaldon translation), 1867 in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library

title: The Martyrdom of Ignatius


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110 rhythm in the long Norwegian and shorter Austrian records, whose curves were given in figures 36 and 24 respectively, pages 105 and 77. Pattern J shows the 33-year cycle of the 400-year tree, N-2, from near the Arctic Circle in Norway. The Vermont hemlocks are shown in pattern K. Here is found a good rhythm with a change in phase about 100 years ago. The Swedish curve shows a good rhythm at 37 years. Several intervals of triple solar cycle appear in the 1,000 years of early sequoia growth in pattern M. All the 8 patterns G to N are taken from special curves prepared on a one-fifth scale, using 5-year sums in the plot.

The 100-year cycle. — Only two tree records are long enough to be tested for a cycle of this length. The sequoia gives a very excellent alinement at a period of 101 years, shown even better in the upper pattern of figure 40. The pattern of the present plate shows an increase to about 125 years in the last 600 years, which corresponds to the best analysis of the 500-year Arizona curve. This latter is at 120 years as shown in pattern P. Both of these are made from special curves plotted on one twenty-fifth of the usual scale.

Illustration by the periodograph. — The illustrations of periodograph analysis given above are practically the first made with this instrument and are therefore crude in many respects. Its advantage in the study of simple and obvious cycles such as the sunspot numbers is not at once apparent to the eye and its efficiency becomes evident only when one tries to select the exact period and state its accuracy. But one can foresee a useful application of this instrument in the study of mixed periods, such as appear in tree-growth here considered or in rainfall and other meteorological elements, a field as yet almost untouched on account of its complexity. However, in the brief presentation of its work given above, it is evident that the periodograph is found to corroborate and extend the results of the previous direct study of curves and to confirm the evidence there given of the great extent and importance of the solar cycles in the growth of trees.


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Rh The agreement seems to the writer to justify the conclusion that the tree record may indicate a possible sunspot period of 11.3 years from 1400 to 1550 and of 14.3 from the latter date to 1600.

Sequoia pattern. — Pattern B in plate 10, opposite page 94, is naturally the most interesting in respect to age, as it gives the sequoia analysis for 3,200 years. The solar cycle subject to slight variations may be dimly seen in large parts of it. It shows with some prominence during the first 500 years of our era, then for a few hundred years near the year 1000 A. D., and for a long interval in the first 500 years of the record. There is opportunity for extensive study of these short periods, interpreting them by the aid of more widely scattered groups and other kinds of trees, and when possible by weather records.

Other solar cycles. — Plate 12, to, shows the multiples of the solar cycle. Pattern G gives the Arizona tree record analyzed at 23.5 years. It shows a slightly irregular vertical row of crests. This is best seen by tipping the pattern so that the eye views it from a low angle instead of perpendicularly as in ordinary reading. A line slanting down to the left giving a period at nearly 22.2 years would answer quite as well. The lower third is somewhat broken by the triple sunspot period showing in it. The same record is analyzed at 33.0 years in pattern N. In this pattern the lower third shows the triple cycle in vertical rows and the double cycle shows in rows slanting strongly down to the left. Patterns H and I in plate 12 show the excellent double sunspot


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 hoped that its center would prove of very great age. But the results were disappointing, for it turned out that it had fallen only a few years before the logging began and that its age was only 2,200 years. It had so many compressed rings in its outer parts that the last 800 years were not considered worth measuring.

On leaving the vicinity of Hume several days were spent at the General Grant National Park. It formed an ideal center for a considerable region. Horseback trips were made to the area which Huntington calls the "World's Fair District," "Converse Hoist," and by other names. No. 20 was a fallen tree with a northerly exposure, on the west side of the upper basin, not far from the old hoist at the top of the ridge. It was on the west side of the abandoned railroad. It was found that the tree fell only 6 years before the logging was done. A log had been taken out and the sample was cut from the top of the fallen stump. No. 21 is the most interesting of all, because it gives the oldest record by nearly 200 years. It is on the east side of the railroad and brook in the lower part of the upper basin, and some 30 feet above the level of the brook. It is not at all impossible that during its long life the topographic character of the ground about it has altered materially. It is somewhat complacent in its later growth, but this does not persist throughout its record. The top of the stump had carbonized, become extremely brittle and very hard to cut. Though bits of wood broke off and clogged the saw, every piece was marked and preserved. The radial sample has been glued together in the laboratory and is now 9 feet long. The original center of the stump was badly cracked through contraction in drying, but there were lacking only about 2 inches at the center. The central portion, perhaps a foot in diameter, was not firm enough to be cut out with the saw. It was therefore removed very carefully and is now mounted in a special box in the laboratory. The oldest complete ring in good condition was identified as 1305 B. C. Possibly two more rings may be added. A hundred yards to the south and slightly higher up the hillside is the "World's Fair Stump." This was cut in 1892 at a height of more than 20 feet above the ground, and to-day the stump is very difficult to climb, as the scaffold built around it has broken away.

A trip was made from the General Grant National Park to the upper part of the Comstock millsite, known also as Wigger's. The stage road goes near it and the point is known as "Big Stump." The stump, easily seen from the road, is some 25 feet in diameter with a raised square in the center. The location is in a side basin close to a small brook. An examination of the rings showed that the tree had grown with the greatest rapidity, as the rings were of enormous size. It was estimated to be 1,500 years old. No sample was taken of it. A trip was also made from the park to visit the General Grant Tree and if possible estimate its age. There is an extensive burnt area on


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 several maxima at about 8.5-year intervals. Pattern E gives the Vermont analysis. The solar cycle shows well for the last 150 years, but is preceded by a 9.2-year cycle for about 50 years, and then by the solar cycle again. This tree curve is shown in figure 27, page 78.

The Arizona pines are given in pattern F. The double-crested solar cycle shows in the larger part of it, but is best developed in the upper and lower thirds. By sighting along these vertical rows, a dark line in the upper third, indicating the more pronounced minimum, comes in straight line with the lesser dark minimum line in the lower third, indicating a transfer of emphasis from one-half of the 11-year cycle to the other half in passing the seventeenth century. This was noted above in connection with the analysis of the same record by a series of curves in figure 33, page 103. Further study of this pattern, however, gives information as to how and when that change took place.

Changes in the 11-year tree-cycle of Arizona—A careful examination of an early differential pattern of the Flagstaff tree record gave the following probable history of the 11-year variation in Arizona:

The interval from 1830 to the present time divides also extremely well on a 21.0-year period, and fairly well in one of 7.3 years.

In obtaining this result no comparison was made with the sunspot record. So the following is of interest:


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Rh averaging near the larger figure. It should more properly be called a "broken" period perhaps, since it is made up of different periods for different intervals, first one and then another predominating. The methods used in the search for this 2-year period have revealed frequently a solar cycle also, and there seems to be some obscure connection between the two.

Differential patterns. — The periodograms, as already shown, indicate the different cycles operating within a certain range. Any one cycle together with others close to it may be studied more minutely on the differential pattern produced when the instrument is set at the desired period. Plates 12 and 10,, are arranged to illustrate this and at the same time show the solar cycles in several of the groups. A periodic effect equal in length to the setting of the instrument is indicated by a vertical row of light crests or dark spaces. These rows may be seen in any of the patterns. If the row of crests points downward to the right, its period is greater than the setting of the instrument; if to the left, the period is less. The straightness of the row indicates the regularity of the period. Plate 12,, is made from the standard 5-year period with a setting at 5.0 years. The first pattern in plate 12 shows the regularity of the sunspot period since 1610 A. D. The interval in the latter part of the eighteenth century, when the cycle was reduced to less than 10 years, is distinguished by a bending of the row toward the left. This is followed by a deflection toward the right during the interval of readjustment from 1790 to 1830. The direction of any row becomes an exact measure of its period.

If a period is constant, the row of crests is straight. A zigzag row made up of short, straight parts means that one period after another becomes predominant. A curved row means a constantly changing period. Some examples of apparent curved rows may be picked out in the sequoia pattern. A curved row may indicate some other function than a simple period. Pattern R in plate 12 is made to illustrate a logarithmic variable, beginning at the top as a 5-year period and changing by a constant percentage increase to a 10-year period at the bottom. The instrument is set at 8.0 years.

The 11-year cycle. — The first 6 patterns in plate l2 illustrate this cycle. The first gives the sunspot numbers from 1610 to 1910, including the uncertain ones from 1610 to 1750. Pattern B gives the fine vertical row shown by the 6 groups of trees from north Europe. This was shown as a curve in figure 25, page 77. The qualitative test of the entire 80 European trees is shown in pattern C. This may be seen as a curve in figure 26. The small secondary maxima at several of the minima show as light crests between the main rows. Pattern D shows a 12-year period in south Sweden during the past 50 years, preceded by


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106 immediately after their completion, and the period at once suggested the Bruckner cycle of 35 years. This interesting tree has been mentioned on pages 34 and 41.

A 2-year cycle — In the cross-identification of the trees used in this investigation, a constantly recurring feature has been a marked alternation in size of successive rings, giving them an appearance of being arranged in pairs. In the plotted curves this produces a zig-zag or see-saw effect. Usually such effect lasts a few years and then disappears or reverses, but the example illustrated in figure 39 shows unusual persistence. It is taken from D-22 from 750 B. C. to 660 B. C. The even dates show less growth than the odd almost continuously for 60 years, but for the next 30 years the reverse is the case. This is

evidently due to a short period of about 2 years in length. It has not yet been fully studied, but it is prominent in the European groups and in the Vermont group. It frequently shows a duration of a little less than 7 years in one phase, with odd dates greater in growth than even dates, and then for the next 7 years reverses its phase. This 14-year cycle is the series of beats the 2-year cycle produces by interfering with

the exact annual and biennial effects in the tree. Hence, by a simple process, its length is found to be in effect frequently 21 or 28 months. Comparison has been made with the rainfall records near the Vermont group (Douglass, 1915:181) and a variable period has been found


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Rh group of trees of considerable age from the inner fjords and mountains of Norway. The earlier half of the curve includes 6 trees and the later half 8. The cycle beneath makes evident a well-developed rhythm in these trees. Figure 37 shows a very regular double sun-spot rhythm in the sequoias. There are many similar rhythms apparent in the sequoias, but as yet little study has been made of them. This one shows 80 years of the section D-12, whose identification was for a

long time uncertain on account of its complacent character and badly compressed rings. The rhythmic character is so evident that no cycle needs to be placed below the curve. The period is estimated at 20 to 22 years.

A triple solar cycle is shown in figure 38, giving the condensed curve of a single 400-year-old Norwegian tree. The upper curve gives the mean growth, and the lower curve is a simple 34-year cycle. The rhythmic character of the growth was clearly seen in the measures


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 the upper side of the tree in which the rings may be observed. These rings are large, and various estimations of the age of the tree obtained in two different visits gave an average of 2,500 years. Near the General Grant Tree is the stump of what was known as the Centennial Tree. It was said that a section of this tree was exhibited in 1876. Since then the stump has been badly burned and is in poor condition for cutting a sample. Some estimate of the rings showed their size to be large, and the age of the tree, therefore, was not very great, perhaps 1,800 years. This confirms the estimate of the General Grant Tree near by. 5. — Sequoia list.

Leaving the vicinity of the General Grant National Park and going south to Porterville, thence by rail to Springville, a 3 days' trip was arranged to the old Enterprise millsite. Camp was made at the cabins, about 10 minutes' walk below the millsite. On going up from the camp. No. 23, known as the Centennial Stump, was found at once, as it is of enormous size, high in the center, and covered with names of visitors. It is located close beside the road and near the wash, about 100 yards from the clear space once occupied by the Enterprise Mill. The oldest tree which Huntington found at this locality had been


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104 the curve a little but not enough to change the pronounced fluctuations amply shown in recent analysis. This 200-year record showed a very clear combination of the double and triple sun-spot periods. This was illustrated at the time in a drawing which is largely reproduced in figure 35. Curve No. 1 is a triple solar cycle 32.8 years in length;

No. 2 is a double cycle 21.2 years long, and the third curve is a simple combination of the two. The fourth curve is the tree-growth, showing fluctuations which admirably combine these two periods. All subsequent analysis of these trees has entirely supported this result, as shown in the periodograph work below. When the length of curve was extended from 200 years to 500 years, the double solar period was found to prevail through almost the entire length, but the triple period does not appear to have affected the tree-growth in the earlier 300 years.

Two other plain examples of the double solar type are illustrated in figures 36 and 37. The former gives the double cycle shown in a


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Rh Correlation curves. — Figure 34 is arranged to show certain relations of special interest in this connection. At the top was found the mean pine and sequoia curves for 490 years averaged on an 11.4-year period. Below these the mean 11.4-year period for the last 60-year interval is given for each tree. This is required for proper comparison with the short interval of climatic records. Next the rainfall and temperature observed on the southern California coast are plotted, and last of all the inverted sunspot curve for a corresponding period. There appears to be a marked relationship between these curves. Even the subordinate crest, which sometimes shows in the change from maximum to mini-

mum of sunspots, matches the suppressed second crest of temperature and the full second crest of rainfall and tree-growth. This would seem impossible in the absence of a physical relation between them.

Double and triple cycles. — The first tabulation of the Arizona pines covered a period of only 200 years and included 25 trees. There were a few errors of identification in some of these trees, sufficient to flatten

1 The correction for the ring 1580 was made too late for insertion in this figure. The two dotted curves between 1420 and 1533, therefore, should be moved one year to the left, while the third dotted curve between 1534 and 1601 becomes slightly modified. A slight change in the first Arizona curve is required by a correction at 1463 A. D.


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102 and the 90 years of record in the wet-climate Scotch pines near the Baltic Sea give the finest examples of rhythmic growth yet found in the trees.

In order to test for possible variations in the sunspot curve during these 500 years, the tree record from 1420 to 1909 has been divided into 8 periods of approximately 60 years each and the form of the 11-year period obtained in each. This is shown in figure 33. From this it appears that the 11-year cycle is not uniform throughout the whole 490 years covered by the curve. In general the cycle shows 2 maxima and 2 minima. From 1420 to 1660 the second minimum is generally the deeper. For the next 60 years the curve flattens out in a striking manner. From 1730 to 1790 the curve again shows variations, but they are not well related to this cycle. After 1790 there are again 2 minima, but on the whole the first is more conspicuous.

The 11-year cycle in sequoia. — The question of agreement between the sequoia and the yellow pine is a vital one. Although the sequoias grow in a locality some 450 miles distant, there is a similarity in the rainfall of the two places. Some attempt has been made to cross-identify the rings in the two groups, and the puzzling fact was revealed that from 1400 to about 1580 no certain identity could be found, though after that date it was evident in many places. The difficulty has been partly removed by applying this same method of analysis to the last 500 years of the sequoia. The result is shown in the dotted lines of figure 33. It is evident that from 1420 to 1476 the second maximum of the pines is almost entirely lacking in the sequoias. The same is true of the interval from 1602 to 1658. The sequoias show strikingly the flattening of the curve from 1670 or 1680 to 1727. In the remainder of the curves the sequoias show better rhythm in the sunspot cycle than do the pines.

Taking the evidence as a whole, it seems likely that the sunspot cycle has been operating since 1400 A. D., with some possible interference for a considerable interval about the end of the seventeenth century.


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Here is a series full of the spirit of high school life of to-day. The girls are real flesh-and-blood characters, and we follow them with interest in school and out. There are many contested matches on track and field, and on the water, as well as doings in the classroom and on the school stage. There is plenty of fun and excitement, all clean, pure and wholesome.


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Rh storms. Rain is the controlling factor in these trees. The trees show a double-crested 11.4-year period through nearly all the 500 years of their record. This will be illustrated below. A 7-year period is also frequently observed, and the combination of the 7-year and 11-year periods may be the cause of these trees showing the double sunspot period prominently through most of their record by interfering to suppress alternate 11-year maxima. A triple sunspot period is very evident in the last 200 years, but is practically lost in the preceding 300. The pines and sequoias agree in showing a long period of about 100 years. The record of the pines is not long enough to give it much precision, and 120 years fits it more nearly. The 3,200 years of the sequoias analyze best at 101 years.

Illustrations of cycles — Two methods of illustrating cycles in the tree curves are used here. One is the usual method of showing the plotted curves together with another curve indicating the cycle, so that agreements and disagreements may be noted. To this method also belongs the integrated or summated curve, which shows the mean variation in the desired period. The other method is by aid of various periodograph diagrams. These diagrams may similarly be divided into the differential pattern, in which variations from the cycle at any time may be noted, and the periodogram proper, which gives roughly the mean form of the cycles in a considerable range of periods. This form of presentation, being new and yet carrying more information than the former, will be given with some explanation after the curves themselves have been shown.

The 11-year cycle. — Only two tree records, the yellow pine and the sequoia, extend back of the first telescopic observations of sunspots. It is of peculiar interest to see whether the trees which carry the rainfall record back so far with a comparatively high degree of accuracy show the same cycle. In nearly all parts of the yellow-pine curve there are suggestions of an 11-year cycle. By tracing this throughout the record, the period is found to have a length of about 11.4 years, which is sufficiently close to the length of the sunspot cycle to be considered identical with it. This exact figure is not yet considered final, as future intensive study of the short-period variations in the trees may throw more light upon it. Taking 11.4 years as the probable length, the average total variation is found to be some 16 per cent of the mean growth. The period is generally double-crested with two well-developed maxima and minima, but they are rarely symmetrical. During the 120 years from 1410 to 1530 it shows most remarkable regularity. This feature, which was observed as soon as the smoothed curve was examined, is shown in figure 32. The tree curve in this diagram has been reduced to departures from its own mean and smoothed by Hann's formula. The short period is immediately evident, even without the 5.7-year cycle plotted below. This bit of record in the yellow pines


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100 England show slight relation to the solar cycle. They show more prominently other variations, which, taken between 1870 and 1900, may have given rise to Lockyer's 3.8-year period (1905, 1906). The full tree record becomes more accordant on a 3.5-year period. In this group there appears to be a slight relation to London rainfall of a direct character, that is, the growth is larger with increased rain. Naturally in such a well-cultivated region there may have been large differences due to treatment of the soil, drainage, and so forth. The other two European groups, one from Pilsen in Bohemia and one from the north slopes of the Alps in southern Bavaria, do not show consistent agreement with the solar variation. Yet the former shows a double sunspot period which is illustrated below.

Coming to the American continent, the Vermont group may also be considered as growing in a wet climate. It shows a very strong single-creasted solar period, but the maxima come 3 years early during the last century. During the preceding century, when the trees were younger, the tree maximum is only 1 year early. The rainfall in this region shows the solar period also, but it is roughly inverted with respect to the tree curve. The Oregon group must be considered as in the wet climate of the temperate zone. It is near the Pacific coast and has abundant rain or snow. The solar cycle is probably in it, but it is not so conspicuous as other short cycles. When these trees are summed up on the 11-year period, they show about 10 per cent total variation with maximum and minimum coinciding with the Vermont group and therefore anticipating the sunspot maximum by 3 years.

The sequoias grow farther south and experience the heavy precipitation of the temperate-zone winter combined with dry-climate summer conditions — that is, the summers are mostly clear, but have occasional sharp local showers, often with lightning. The tree-growth shows a relation to the rainfall in the great valley below and therefore we could expect some similarity to the Arizona pines. This does exist, but the exact 11.4-year cycle shown in the pines is less evident in the sequoias, though unmistakably there. The analysis of the long sequoia record will be shown below. In it several cycles between 7 and 15 years predominate in places. The 11-year period is plainly evident through most of the record and for some centuries is the predominant cycle, but for long periods other slightly differing cycles, such as 10 years, 12.6 years, or 13 years, are more evident. It is as yet impossible to say whether at these times there was a real change in the sunspot period, whether some subordinate period is operating in the sun, or whether only local conditions of some kind are the controlling factor.

The yellow pines of northern Arizona are dry-climate trees. They have a modified winter precipitation of the temperate zone. Spring and autumn have the complete dryness of the "horse latitudes," and the summers have the characteristic subtropical torrential thunder-


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 conspicuous and general cycles at once apparent in the trees are directly related to the solar period. They are as follows:

There are few if any periods over 20 years not in this list, but under 20 years several are fairly persistent, such as 19-, 14-, 10-, and 7-year periods. There is also a period of about 2 years which causes a frequent alternation of size in successive rings, giving a "see-saw" or "zig-zag" effect in the appearance of the curve. The discussion in this chapter, however, will be confined to the solar group of periods above listed and to a preliminary statement regarding the 2-year period. As the larger of these solar periods are very nearly simple multiples of the 11-year period, it is naturally suspected that they are or should be real multiples of the sunspot period. Hence I feel at liberty to speak of the "double sunspot period" or the "triple sunspot period" without committing myself to its exact length.

Locality and solar cycles. — Compared to the multitudes of meteorological districts about the world, the few isolated localities which have here been investigated seem very insignificant. The wet-climate trees near the Baltic Sea show variations following almost perfectly, the curve of sunspot numbers. The Scotch pines just south of the sea have had good care since they were planted about 90 years ago. This care has prevented the excessive competition between individuals which characterize natural forests, and perhaps for that reason they give this remarkable record of external conditions. The trees to the north of the Baltic include spruces as well as Scotch pines, and show the same reaction. Both these groups are in comparatively level country and far from mountains. The group of pines from the Swedish province of Dalarne show the 11-year period somewhat less clearly. They were nearer the backbone of mountains which extends down the Scandinavian peninsula. The older trees of this group show evidence of a triple sunspot period. The groups growing in the mountains and in the inner fjords of Norway show extensive variations and even reversals. Some of the individual trees exhibit the sunspot period very well, while some show it inverted and some divide it into two crests. The older trees show evidence of an inverted double period.

The trees near sea-level, both at Christiania and on the outer coast of Norway, return again to the 11-year period. The former do not cross-identify well and the latter show occasional variations, such as double-crested period, inversion, etc. Variations of this kind were noted in different radii of the same tree. The trees from the south of


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 Significance of cycles.—It has already been stated that three characteristics were observed in the curves of tree-growth: (1) correlation with rainfall; (2) correlation with sunspots; (3) general periodic variation. In the first and second of these the trees are compared directly with existing records, but in the third the tree record is available over hundreds and even thousands of years during which no human observations were recorded. Thus, if previous inferences are correct, the trees may reasonably be expected to give us some knowledge of prehistoric conditions. In the first attempt to secure such knowledge, the method which promises the most certain results is the analysis of ring variations in terms of cycles.

Correlatively, the study of cycles is of special value in climatic investigations. Such studies are undertaken for the purpose of predicting the future. The basis of daily or short-distance prediction is found in the conditions existing about the country at a given moment and a knowledge of the usual movement of storm areas. A basis for long-distance prediction is now generally sought in climatic cycles. Such cycles may or may not be permanent. Perhaps they are nothing more enduring than a series of wave systems on a water surface. Yet for the navigator a knowledge of the existing system is important, and so for the purpose of weather prediction we need to know the nature of the pulsations actually operating, and each one should be studied minutely. For this purpose the very long tree records and their presumably fair accuracy seem especially advantageous, since they give us a range in centuries which the meteorological records, with few exceptions, give only in decades.

A special and rapid method of carrying on the study of cycles has been developed in the periodograph which has been used in checking fully all the results in the present chapter. But after its recent completion and trial the fact became clear to the writer that its real service will be in a complete and thorough examination of all curves obtained, in order to derive a quantitative statement of the extension in time and space shown by each cycle. This in itself is a long process. Moreover, preliminary analysis of many tree curves reveals a very complex system of short-period variations in the trees, some of evident significance and some of little-known value as yet. The study of this complex of short periods together with other problems naturally suggested in the course of the work is reserved for the future; we shall now touch upon a few of the most important results reached in the analyses already accomplished.

Predominant cycles.—With the understanding that the study of cycles is not yet complete, it may be stated at once that the more


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 of the period is the accuracy with which the direction of this line can be ascertained. This depends on the length of the row of crests, on the shortness of each crest, and on their individual regularity or alinement. These characteristics may be noted in the plates and especially in plate 12,. Expressed in other terms, these resolving features are respectively as follows: (1) Number of cycles covered by the given curve. (2) Shortness of maxima in relation to length of cycle; if the maximum is sudden and sharp, as in rainfall, the accuracy may be very great; if the maximum is long, as in a sine curve, the accuracy is less. (3) Regularity in the maxima and freedom from interference. These features all appear in the differential pattern and hence the accuracy of any period is its most evident feature and all observers can judge it equally well. It is exactly analogous to the accuracy of a straight line passed through a series of plotted points which theoretically ought to form a straight line but which do not do so exactly.

The most important part of the constructed instrument which may alter the accuracy of analysis is the analyzing plate. The accurate spacing and parallelism of the lines is a mechanical feature and can be produced with care and attention to details, but the relation of width of transparent line to center-to-center spacing of the lines is a matter of judgment and the necessities of photography. As this relative width increases, the length of each crest in the pattern becomes longer and the row of crests becomes wider and less definite in direction. If the maxima in the curve under test are of the sine-curve type this relation is less important, for the light crests in the pattern will be long in any case, but for sharp, isolated maxima resolution is lost if the width of the transparent line is too great. In the instrument now constructed the ratio of transparent line to center-to-center spacing is 3:10, but a smaller ratio such as 1:10 could advantageously be used in certain cases if there is sufficient light to make photography easy.

The accuracy in reading a periodogram is at once apparent on its face. When the number of cycles is great as in plate 11,, the rhythmic or beaded effect is short and very limited in extent, as in the 5-year period there indicated, and the period is accurately told. But if the number of cycles is reduced (as in plate 11, or ) the periodic effect in the photograph extends over a greater range and its center can not be told with the same precision. The accuracy of estimation in the periodogram is therefore the actual accuracy of the result.


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A. Periodogram of standard 5-year period.

B. Periodogram of mixed periods.

C. Periodogram of sunspot numbers, 1610-1910.

D. Periodogram of Flagstaff 500-year record, to show cycles between 4 and 15 years of length.

E. Periodogram of same continued to 25 years.


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96 Periodograms. — Plate 11, which has been arranged to illustrate the work of the periodograph, shows several of the early periodograms which are comparatively free from obvious instrumental defects. In each the range of periods is marked on the left margin. Periods are indicated by the vertical band or ribbon breaking up into a series of horizontal dots or beads. For example, plate 11,, is a periodogram of the 5-year standard period made for the purpose of calibrating the work of the periodograph. The 5-year period is very prominent near the top of the diagram in the plate. At 10 years its first harmonic appears with double crest, showing still that it is a 5-year period. At 15 years the second harmonic shows with a triple crest, and at 7.5 years the 3/2 overtone is evident with 3/2 crests. These overtones are always readily distinguished from the fundamental on the differential pattern. The differential pattern of this 5-year standard is shown in plate 12,. The instrument is set for analysis at 5.0 years. In this position the integrating lens sums up the rows of light crests as a series of dots on the periodogram.

Plate 11,, is the analysis of a mixed standard used for calibrating the instrument. The curve contains sharp triangular crests at intervals representing periods of 7, 9, 11, 13, and 17 years, all mixed together and no two starting intentionally from the same point. These are all separated in the periodogram and the overtones of some may be seen. Such overtones can be distinguished from the fundamental on the differential pattern.

Plate 11,, gives a periodogram of the sunspot numbers from 1610 to 1910, using before 1750 the probable times of maxima suggested by Wolfer. The best period is at 11.1 as usually quoted. If the variation from 1750 only is taken, the best period comes at 11.4. This periodogram shows a period at about 8.6. The degree of accuracy with which one can pick out the periodic point is a real criterion of the accuracy of the result selected. The differential pattern of this same series of sunspot numbers will be found in plate 12,, in which the vertical rows of crests are readily distinguished. The sudden change in direction of the lines a little below the center of this and the two following periodograms is an instrumental defect due to slight unevenness in the track and therefore is without significance.

Plate 11, and, give an analysis of the Arizona 500-year record. The chief points of interest are the well-defined double-crested 11.6-year period and the 19-year and 22-year periods. Other weaker periods may be seen from place to place.

Resolving power of the periodograph. — The accuracy with which a period can be determined by the periodograph may be readily observed in the differential pattern and the periodogram. The pattern indicates a period by showing a row of light spots or crests in line. The accuracy


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Rh duction of the aperture of the objective, namely, 1 inch high by 0.25 inch wide, but the detail in this area of light is brought in focus by the cylindrical lens and integrates the horizontal lines of the differential pattern. When, therefore, the differential pattern shows a series of horizontal fringes, they become reproduced by a series of horizontal lines crossing the slit, while in the slit itself they appear as a series of dots. When a period is disclosed by proper position of the camera, it will produce horizontal lines on the analyzing plate. A series of black and white dots, therefore, go through the slit into the final compartment; but when the distance is such that the lines on the differential pattern are at some slant, then, the integration carried into the slit being still horizontal, the illumination in the slit is uniform. In this way the beaded or corrugated effect in the slit indicates a period at that particular distance from the curve.

In order to read off periods directly in the final result without the necessity of making exact measures, an automatic signal or period indicator is introduced in this second compartment. Above the upper and lower ends of the slit are placed small pieces of mirror at 45°, and corresponding to these there are two small holes 0.25 inch in diameter in the side of the box. Outside of these holes again is a mirror at 45° reflecting light from the curve in the window. So long as the holes are open, direct light from the curve is reflected by the two sets of mirrors through the slit on to the film beyond, as will be described. A shutter is placed over the outer holes in the box with a lever carried down to the vicinity of the central rail. On the end of the lever arm is a wheel. At proper intervals small pieces of wood are placed in the side of the track, so that as the wheel passes over them the shutter is opened and light passes to the mirrors and makes a dot or a line on each side of the film in the third compartment. In this way marks can be placed on the film independent of the periodogram, and yet they can be spaced exactly to represent the different periods tested. Special periods, for example 5 or 10 years, etc., are indicated by the extra length and density of the marks produced. These appear on the margins of the periodograms in plate 11.

The final compartment at the rear contains a drum on a vertical axis which is slowly rotated as the whole mechanism moves along the track. The rear wheel resting on the center rail is connected by gearing to the drum, so that 1 mm. on the drum represents 42.7 mm. or 1.7 inches on the track. This makes a convenient length for the final periodogram. The drum can be detached, carried to a dark room to have a film pinned to its periphery, returned in a special light-tight box, and mounted on its axis for an exposure. The times of exposure depend on characteristics of the curve under test, but it is necessary to allow about 35 minutes for the range from 4 to 15 years, and several times that for the range from 15 to 25 years. Plates 10, 11, and 12 illustrate the apparatus and the periodic analysis produced.


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A. The automatic optical periodograph.

B. Differential patterns of Sequoia record, 3200 years at 11.4.


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94 center to center. The proportionate transparent part is about three-tenths of the center-to-center measurement. The area covered by these lies is 1 by 3 inches, making about 156 lines. The photograph is transparent with dense black lines in it. The glass has been cut down to a convenient size, and this plate is mounted at the back of the first compartment with the film side of the plate toward the back. This plate is over the large opening at the back of the first compartment. The differential pattern is formed automatically by the lens on this plate. The plate is held in a fixed position with its lines nearly vertical but inclined about 12° to the lines of the sweep formed by the lens. This produces fringes more or less horizontal in direction. Varying periods are tested by changing the distance from the curve which alters the scale of the sweep while the analyzing lines are unchanged. As the scale of the sweep changes, the fringes appear to rotate about the center of the differential pattern. Immediately behind the analyzing plate are two condensing lenses described in the next topic. They bring the general beam of light to a focus about 6 inches back of the plate. For visual work a movable mirror, just back of the plate, reflects the beam outside the camera box, through an eyepiece to the eye. For photographic work a small total-reflection prism and simple lens are inserted about 5 inches back of the analyzing plate. These throw the beam outside into a special camera attachment in which ordinary films or plates may be used.

The periodogram mechanism. — The remainder of the camera is especially for the purpose of producing the periodogram from the differential pattern. Almost in contact with the analyzing plate is a condensing lens consisting of two cylindrical lenses about 2 inches in diameter and 6 inches focus; these are mounted with vertical axes and with their convex sides toward each other. The aperture of the condenser is about 0.75 inch in vertical height and 1.75 inches in length. The purpose of these condensers is to coverge the light which comes through the analyzing plate on the slit at the back. The second compartment is nearly the same size as the first, namely, about 6.5 inches long. At its front end is the analyzing plate with the condensers and at its back in the same optical axis is a vertical slit about 1 inch long and 1 mm. wide. The sides of this slit are beveled so that the slit itself is at the back. In the middle of this compartment is a powerful cylindrical lens or combination of lenses with horizontal axis. This lens is made up of 4 separate positive cylindrical lenses, each 2 inches in diameter and 6 inches focus. These all have their convex sides toward the common center. They are mounted on a movable carriage of wood which slips in place or may be removed entirely. The aperture of this lens system is about 1.5 inches long by 0.75 inch high. The effect of the condensing lens and of this cylindrical lens is to cast in the plane of the slit an area of light whose size is essentially a repro-


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Rh bevel attached to a vertical axis with a worm gear at the top, which the electric motor drives with a belt connection. In order to aid the motion of the camera, a cord passes from its back to the outer end of the track and by a system of pulleys and weights exerts a slight constant force. The motor is so connected that the camera travels away from the curve. The details here described may be seen in plate 10.

The differential pattern mechanism. — The camera is divided into three separate compartments, to each of which access is obtained by a sliding door moving in grooves on the side. The front compartment produces the differential pattern. It is about 7 inches long by 5 inches wide in the clear and 4 inches high. It is nearly divided into two parts by a partition which comes down from the top at about 2 inches from the front end. This partition does not go down to the floor of the compartment, but leaves a space of about an inch. A hole 1.5 inches in diameter is cut through the front of this compartment a little above its center, and another hole of the same size to match is cut through this partition, while at the back of this compartment a large opening is made a little over 2.5 inches wide and about 2 inches high. The lens is carried on a special carriage consisting of a horizontal and a vertical part. The vertical piece has a hole 1.5 inches in diameter cut in it, and the lens is mounted over the hole. The lens now in use consists of a spherical lens concavo-convex 2 inches in diameter and 12 inches in focus placed on the inside, and a positive cylindrical lens of the same size and focus placed on the outside with axis vertical. The convex side of each lens is placed outward. The lens carriage is placed partly under the partial partition and the lens in its holder comes directly between the two holes mentioned. When the sliding door of the compartment is down, the compartment is sufficiently light-tight to fulfill all the requirements of a camera. The movable carriage of the lens is mounted on two small glass tubes and runs between guides. A spring at its back end pulls it toward the position of focus for distant objects, where its motion is stopped by a pin. A long screw is passed through a, hole in the bottom of the camera box and enters the bottom of this lens carriage, so that an automatic arrangement outside and underneath the camera can regulate the focus. This consists of a vertical axis with two lever arms. The upper lever arm is a short one connected to the screw which comes from the lens board. The lower lever arm is some 4 inches below the upper and goes off in a direction nearly at right angles; it carries on its end a wheel in a horizontal position. This wheel is so placed that it runs on an especially arranged track attached to the side of the center rail of the main track. By varying the elevation of this special focussing track in different parts of the main track, the focus of the lens can be automatically controlled.

At the back of this first compartment is the analyzing plate, the same plate used in previous work. The spacing of its lines is 0.5 mm. from


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92

The present apparatus combines the two processes whose development has been described above. The second process developed is really the first one in the present instrument.

The curve. — The curve is prepared by cutting it out in a thick coordinate paper. The space between the curved line and the base is entirely removed and the curve becomes represented by area. In order to make the density still greater, the paper is painted with an opaque paint so that the brilliant light passing through will come through only the curve itself and not the paper. A special window-shutter is made to occupy the lower 2 feet of the window, whose width is some 50 inches. The curtain can be drawn down to the top of this, excluding the light around the edges. This window-shutter has a door in the upper part to give access to the interior. Within this box is a sloping platform upon which a mirror 8 by 46 inches is placed. This mirror is about 35° from the horizontal position and when looked at from a horizontal direction it reflects the sky from near the zenith. On the side of this box toward the room is a slit 45 by 3 inches in size. This extends horizontally and is on a level with the mirror. Below this slit is a narrow groove for taking the lower edge of the curve paper and above this slit is a strip of wood on hinges, so that when the lower edge of the curve is placed in the narrow groove below, this hinged strip closes down on the top and holds the curve in place directly in front of the mirror. Looked at from a horizontal direction within the room, the curve is seen brightly illuminated by light from the sky not far from overhead.

Track and moving mechanism. — About 7 feet from the curve the track begins and extends back 45 feet in a perpendicular direction. The track consists of 3 rails. The center rail is of uniform height and takes the single rear wheel, whose motion controls the movement of the film at the back of the camera. The right-hand rail is also uniform in height and supports one of the front wheels. The left rail is variable in height and supports the driving-cone, which serves as the other front wheel. The cone is 6 inches long and 3 inches in greatest diameter. It rests on a side rail whose elevation and distance from the center can be altered. The purpose of this particular mechanism is to vary the speed with which the camera travels along the track, for the time of exposure is approximately proportional to the square of the distance from the curve, and therefore when the camera travels from the near position to the far position it must slow down in rate as it goes along. The left rail, therefore, at the near position is close to the center and low down; in the middle and outer parts of the track it gets farther away and higher up, since the parts of the cone near the vertex travel on it. The axis of the cone carries a bevel gear meshing with another


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 numbered 116 in his lists. This stump had no number on it, but from the date of its cutting and its age of nearly 3,100 years, it is without doubt the one he refers to. The tree was cut in the winter of 1874-75 for exhibition at the Centennial. The trunk was hollowed out and prepared for transportation in pieces to Philadelphia, where it was said to have been erected, making a sort of hut. In consequence of the uneven surface left, it was very difficult to cut a sample from this stump. However, one was at last secured, which is 12 feet long as it lies on the table in the laboratory.

No. 22 was Huntington's No. 195 and grew near the center of the millsite. Its cutting was extremely easy and its cross-identification with No. 23 and the other trees farther north proved entirely reliable.

The location from which these two interesting trees were obtained is at the very top of a ridge with a steep descent on the east to the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Tule River and a similar descent on the west to the Tule Valley. The top of the ridge is several hundred yards wide, with opportunity for considerable snow to collect there in winter. It receives little drainage from any source. Just north of it is Mount Moses, high and rugged, and to the south are high ridges extending toward Bear Valley. All the sections obtained in these various trips were shipped to Tucson, and four weeks of continuous work were spent in cross-identification. All the identifications were satisfactory except the year 1580, which was finally determined by the special trip in 1919. The general method of measuring and marking these sections will be found in the next chapter and the tabulation of averages at the back of the book. Owing to the interest in these trees of remarkable size and age, a list of the 23 collected in these two trips is given in table 5.


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Rh Now, taking analyzing lines $\overline{aa1}$ and $\overline{bb1}$ in figure 31 as horizontal, and letting the sweep be inclined as a small angle δ with the analyzing lines, the number of lines required to cross the sweep in the direction ab perpendicular to analyzing lines will be increased and hence the value in years between two analyzing lines will be decreased; hence

If the fringe is perpendicular to the analyzing lines, its period is the distance $\overline{ab}$ in years and we have for this special case:

If, however, the fringe takes some other slant, as the direction $\overline{ac}$, making the angle θ with the analyzing lines, then the period desired is the time in years between a and c. That equals the time between a and b less the time from b to c. Now $\overline{bc}$ in years would equal $$\scriptstyle \overline {ab} cot \theta$$ except for the fact that the horizontal scale along $\overline{bc}$ is greater than the vertical scale along $\overline{ab}$ in the ratio $$\scriptstyle {cos \delta} \over {sin \delta}$$ and therefore a definite space interval along it means fewer years in the ratio of $$\scriptstyle {sin \delta} \over {cos \delta}$$. Hence we have:

or

which is the period required.

The separation of the fringes needs to be known at times in order to find whether one or more actual cycles are appearing in the period under test. In figure 31

which is the width required.


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 IV. DETAILS OF CURVE PRODUCTION. PREPARATION OF RADIAL SAMPLES. Form of sample.—Nearly all of the 230 trees used in this investigation are represented by portions preserved in my collection. Wherever possible the entire section, 1 to 3 inches or more in thickness, was brought to the laboratory for examination. Unless the section was light and easily handled, it was found convenient to cut from it a radial piece showing the complete series of rings from center to bark. Naturally the enormous trees of the sequoia groups could be obtained only in radial form. The paper rubbings from Oregon and the small cuttings of the Prescott and second Flagstaff groups were also of this type. Hence the radial sample is regarded as the usual or type form in which the material appears in the laboratory. If the original section was small the radial piece appears as a bit of wood cut across the grain, square or triangular in cross-section and a foot, more or less, in length.

Method of Cutting.—The partial radials, such as used in the Prescott group, were secured from the stumps in place by making saw cuts at the edge of the stump in two directions, meeting a few inches below the surface. In this manner a piece of wood in the form of a triangular pyramid was secured and was sent to the laboratory. The radials of the sequoias were cut altogether from the tops of stumps or from the ends of logs that lay on the ground. From the manner in which the trees were cut down it was usually possible to get a clear surface of stump or log from the bark on one side to somewhat past the center where the under-cut had been made. After a minute examination of the surface exposed, a radius was selected which would give the greatest freedom from fire-scars and other irregularities of ring distribution. Two lines about 8 inches apart were drawn with blue chalk along this radius. Then two men with a saw 8 to 14 feet in length made a slanting cut on one of the lines of sufficient depth and in the right direction to meet a similar slanting cut from the other chalk line. In this way a long piece of wood of V-shape in cross-section was obtained, extending from the center to the outside and giving the full ring record.

In sequoias recently felled this cutting of the radials was extremely easy, but many of the sections obtained were from stumps which had been standing and weathering for 25 years and in one case 43 years. The exposure carbonizes the top of the stump and makes it extremely brittle and difficult to cut; small pieces break off and wedge the saw. Thus it often becomes a very difficult task to extract the radial section. The pieces into which the radial section breaks are marked for identification immediately, photographed and listed in notebook, and then carefully packed for shipment. On arriving at the laboratory, they are pieced together with the greatest care and then glued together in groups, making the entire radial section a series of convenient pieces about 2 to 3 feet in length.


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 Preparation for measurement.—These pieces were then examined to find the longest sequences of clear and large rings, and guide-lines for the subsequent identification and measurement were selected as nearly as possible perpendicular to the rings. Such lines having been decided on, two straight pencil lines, half an inch apart, were drawn and the surface between these was "shaved." For this purpose, after the trial of many other methods, a common safety-razor blade was clamped to a short brass handle. With this very sharp blade the rough surface of the wood is removed and the rings stand out very clear and distinct. Besides the space between the lines, the region close outside is usually shaved also for a preliminary trial at cross-identification, the final marks being the only ones permitted between the guide-fines.

The best light for observing the rings is a somewhat diffused light coming sharply from the side. A light falling on the wood perpendicularly is apt to be very poor, either for visual work or photography. Light from each side must be tried, for there is often a great difference between the two directions, due probably to the way in which the knife passed over the wood and bent the ragged edges of the cells. In photographing, the colors involved and the result sought (i. e., to show the red rings as black) require an ordinary plate and a blue color-screen.

When the surface is well prepared it is placed in a suitable light and wet with kerosene applied by means of a bit of cotton on the end of a small stick. This deadens the undesired details of the surface, and brings the rings into greater prominence. The identified section is now supported over the unknown and with watchmaker's glass in eye and long needle in hand, the observer can make rapid comparison and quickly put on the required marks.

IDENTIFICATION OF RINGS. In the early Flagstaff work the rings were first numbered, beginning at the outside without regard to the year in which they grew. But this was found to add complexity and involve the use of a separate reduction from the provisional numbers to the true dates of the rings. Accordingly the rings are dated at once as well as possible on some selected section that gives promise of an accurate record. The identification mark is a pin-prick or very small hole placed on the last ring of each decade. The middle year of each century has 2 pin-pricks and the centuries are marked with 3; the 1,000-year mark is 4. Marks found in error are "erased" by a scratch through them. After the selected section is dated with the greatest care not to overlook or mistake any rings, others are dated by direct comparison with it. The common practical test in such comparison is the relation of width of a ring to its half-dozen near neighbors. For some unknown reason, rings of diminished size seem to carry more individuality than enlarged rings, and so they are usually picked out for cross-comparison.


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 In nearly every decade some are thus distinguished, and in each century there are usually 3 to 4 conspicuously small rings which give very important aid.

In the first work on the 2,200-year sequoia record, the identification was a laborious task involving all the writer's spare time for a year. The only real difficulty was with the ring for the year 1580. This was temporarily called 1580, but the material collected in 1919 showed it to represent a year and a final and complete renumbering included it as such. In the end the comparisons gave entire confidence as to the identity of every ring. Section No. 2 gave the most nearly perfect long record, beginning at 274 B. C, and is used as a standard with which to compare all new ones.

The most difficult parts to identify are the compressed rings. Over long periods, varying from 5 or 10 up to 100 years, the rings are sometimes so crowded together that large numbers of them seem to be merged into one and their identification becomes extremely difficult and in a few cases impossible. The great variations in sizes so produced also exaggerate effects. These groups of compressed rings are considered as of little value, and in fact in many trees their measurement is omitted altogether. Tree No. 12 of the sequoias obtained from the Indian Basin had such bad groups of compressed rings that it proved practically impossible to identify them without a large expenditure of time not then available. Tree No. 17, also, from Camp 7, was found so full of compressed rings in the last few hundred years that all measurements were omitted after the year 1130 A. D.

Fire-scars. — Most of the big trees show fire-scars at some time in their history, and the process of the tree's regeneration is very interesting to observe. If the scar is small the woody growth quickly comes in from each side and covers it. If the scar is very large, occupying perhaps one-quarter or one-third of the circumference, the tree is likely never to recover and the burnt place remains permanently on its side. In cases of less extensive burns, the wood from each side year by year grows toward and over the injured spot, and if the injury has not been too great the approaching sides may meet and imprison their own bark within the tree. Thus one often sees the tops of the stumps marked here and there by a hole as large as a foot in diameter, filled with bark in perfectly good condition.

No. 12 had several fire-scars that interfered with the identification of rings. No. 18 also had one or two fire-scars and in particular showed a fire in the year 1781. The latter evidently stopped the growth at that point completely, yet was not large enough to interfere with recovery. In the sample in the laboratory the usual reddish-colored heartwood changes about the year 1700 to the white sapwood, which ends with the ring 1781 and shows a surface that was once covered with bark. However, immediately outside of that surface, the red heart-


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These tales take in the various adventures participated in by several bright, up-to-date girls who love outdoor life. They are clean and wholesome, free from sensationalism, absorbing from the first chapter to the last.


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The adventures of Ruth and Alice DeVere. Their father, a widower, is an actor who has taken up work for the "movies." Both girls wish to aid him in his work and visit various localities to act in all sorts of pictures.


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Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ecstasy

Ecstasy.—Supernatural ecstasy may be defined as a state which, while it lasts, includes two elements: the one, interior and invisible, when the mind rivets its attention on a religious subject; the other, corporeal and visible, when the activity of the senses is suspended, so that not only are external sensations incapable of influencing the soul, but considerable difficulty is experienced in awakening such sensations, and this whether the ecstatic himself desires to do so, or others attempt to quicken the organs into action. That quite a large number of the saints have been granted ecstasies is attested by hagiology; and nowadays even free-thinkers are slow to deny historical facts that rest on so solid a basis. They no longer endeavor, as did their predecessors of the eighteenth century, to explain them away as grounded on fraud; several, indeed, abandoning the pathological theory, current in the nineteenth century, have advocated the psychological explanation, though they exaggerate its force.

FALSE VIEWS ON THE QUESTION OF ECSTASY.—The first three errors here mentioned are psychological in nature; they fail to estimate at its proper value the content of ecstasy; the other false theories spoken of identify this state with certain morbid physical or psychological conditions.

(I) Certain infidel philosophers maintain that during an ecstasy there is a lessening of intellectual power, that at a certain stage there is an utter loss of the ego, an annihilation of the faculties. This is the theory of Murisier and of Leuba. The arguments for this view are based upon an exaggerated interpretation of certain phrases used by the mystics. Their accounts, however (those, for instance, of Blessed Angela of Foligno), give the lie to such an explanation. The mystics state clearly that they experience, not only the fullness, but the superabundance of intelligence, an increase of activity of the highest faculties. Now, in a science that is based on observation, as is mysticism, we are not justified in brushing aside the numerous and consistent testimonies of those who have tested the facts, and putting in their place the creations of the imagination.

(2) The theory of unconsciousness distorts the facts so unscrupulously that some writers have preferred a theory less crude, i.e. the emotional explanation. The ecstatic, it is admitted, is not buried in a heavy sleep; rather, he experiences violent emotions, in consequence of which he loses the use of the senses; and as there is nothing new to occupy his attention, it follows that his mind is taken up by some trifling thought, so trifling, indeed, that these writers deem it unworthy of their notice. This theory clashes less with historical data than does the first, since it does not wholly eliminate the activity of the ecstatic; but it denies half the facts emphatically urged by the mystical writers.

(3) It has been said that ecstasy is perhaps a phenomenon wholly natural, such as might well be occasioned by a strong concentration of the mind on a religious subject. But if we are not to rest satisfied with arbitrary conjectures, we must show that similar facts have been observed in spheres of thought other than purely religious. The ancients attributed natural ecstasies to three or four sages, such as Archimedes and Socrates, but, as the present writer has proved elsewhere, these stories are founded either on inconclusive arguments or upon false interpretation of the facts (Des graeces d'oraison, c. xxxi).

(4) The rigid condition of the ecstatic's body has given rise to a fourth error. Ecstasy, we are told, is but another form of lethargy or catalepsy. The loss of consciousness, however, that accompanies these latter states points to a marked difference.

(5) In view of this, some have sought to identify ecstasy with the hypnotic state. Physically, there are usually some points of contrast. Ecstasy is always accompanied by noble attitudes of the body, whereas in hospitals one often marks motions of the body that are convulsive or repelling; barring, of course, any counter-command of the hypnotist. The chief difference, though, is to be found in the soul. The intellectual faculties, in the case of the saints, became keener. The sick in our hospitals, on the contrary, experience during their trances a lessening of their intelligences, while the gain is only a slight representation in the imagination. A single idea, let it be ever so trivial, e.g. that of a flower, or a bird, is strong enough to fasten upon it their profound and undivided attention. This is what is meant by the narrowing of the field of consciousness; and this is precisely the starting point of all theories that have been advanced to explain hypnotic ecstasy. Moreover, the hallucination noticed in the case of these patients consists always of representations of the imagination. They are visual, auricular, or tactual; consequently they differ widely from the purely intellectual perceptions which the saints usually enjoy. It is no longer possible, then, to start with the extremely simple hypothesis that the two kinds of phenomena are one and the same.

A comparison of the effects that follow these states will bring out more clearly the essential difference between the two. (a) The neuropath, after an hypnotic trance, is dull, lifeless, and depressed. (b) His will is extremely weak. In this abnormal weakness is to be sought the reason why the subject can no longer resist suggestion. These poor creatures, distraught, listless, and helpless, pass their days in idle dreams. (c) The level of their morality is frequently almost as low as that of their intelligence. From a threefold point of view, then, there is a contrast between their case and that of the saints who have been granted ecstasies. (a) The latter possess strong intellects, conceiving projects lofty and difficult in the execution; in proof of this assertion we might appeal to the history of the founders of religious orders. (b) Their will-power is second to none in energy; so strong, indeed, as to enable them to break through all opposition, especially that which arises from their own nature. (c) Lastly, the saints keep before them a moral ideal of a lofty character, the need of self-forgetfulness if they would give themselves to the glory of God and the temporal and spiritual welfare of their fellow-men. The hysterical subject of hypnotism, on the contrary, combines in himself none of these noble qualities.

(6) An attempt has been made to rank ecstasy with somnambulism, with which have also been classed, but with greater reason, the trances of spirit mediums. The case which most approaches, on the surface, the ecstasy of the saints is that of Helen Smith, of Geneva, whom Professor Flournoy studied carefully during the closing years of the nineteenth century. During the crises of spontaneous somnambulism she described her visions in word or in writing. At one time she saw the inhabitants of the planet Mars, at another she dwelt among the Arabs or the Hindus of the fourteenth century. In 1904 she had crises lasting a quarter of an hour, during which she painted in oil pictures of Christ and the Madonna, though she was quite unconscious of what she was doing. The ecstasies of the saints were, it was thought, of exactly the same nature. There are, however, some striking differences: (a) From the moral viewpoint the visions of the saints produce a remarkable change in their manner of life, and lead them to the exercise of the most difficult virtues. Helen experiences nothing of the kind. She is a good woman, that is all. (b) Unlike the saints, she remembers nothing of what she has seen. (c) While the vision lasts, the faculties at play are not the same. In the case of the saints, the activity of the imagination is arrested during the culminating periods, and throughout always holds a subsidiary place, while the intellect undergoes a marvellous expansion. In the case of Helen, the imagination alone was at work, and its objects were of the most commonplace character. Not a single elevated thought; simply descriptions of houses, animals, or plants—nothing but a mere copy of what we see on earth. Such descriptions serve only as stories to amuse children.

(7) A seventh theory would identify ecstasy with the wild reveries and disordered fancies occasioned by the use of alcohol, ether, chloroform, opium, morphine, or nitrous oxide. In the first place, the physical condition is quite different. No one, for instance, would mistake the exalted attitude of an ecstatic for that of a man under the influence of narcotics. Secondly, the mental perceptions are not the same in character. For if the slave of the drugs we have mentioned above does not lose all consciousness, if he still retains any ideas, they consist of extravagant, incoherent images, whereas the ideas and thoughts of the mystic are throughout coherent and elevated. Finally, the victims of alcohol and of opium, on recovering from their debauch, remain in a state of sottishness. Thought and action are simultaneously lessened; the moral and the social life have equally suffered. The use of narcotics has never enabled a man to lead a purer life or to better himself and others; experience points to the contrary.

These, then, are the false views that have been entertained on the question of ecstasy. Nor should it be a matter of surprise that free-thinkers should have ventured on these explanations. It is but the conclusion that follows logically from the principles with which they start, i.e., there is no such thing as the supernatural. They must, then, at any cost, seek the causes in natural phenomena. (See Contemplation.)

AUG. POULAIN

title: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ecstasy


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Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ecuador

Ecuador,, an independent state of South America, bounded on the north by Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the south by Peru, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The northwestern corner of the State is crossed by the Equator, hence its name. No part of America has been so prominent for scientific explorations, specially geographic and physiographic, carried out on a large scale in the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century. One, sent out in 1735 by the French Government for the purpose of measuring the meridian near the Equator, recalls the names of La Condamine and Bouguer. The other (1799-1804) forever associates Alexander von Humboldt with the history of the New World.

AREA, PHYSICAL FEATURES, ETC.—Ecuador is the third smallest of the South American republics. It forms, approximately, an isosceles triangle wedged in between Colombia and Peru. Indenting the southwest coast is the Gulf of Guayaquil within which lies the large Island of Punà. As in the case of other South American republics, the boundaries of Ecuador are ill-defined and subject to modification by treaty. Its area is variously given as from 80,300 to 152,000 sq. miles, to which must be added the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific, lying about 90°-92° west long., 10 degrees off the coast, and covering from 2490 to 3000 sq. miles. These islands are about ten in number, only one of which (Isabella or Albemarle) is inhabited by some two hundred people. The eastern half of Ecuador is low, wooded, and traversed by many rivers emptying into the Maranon or Upper Amazon; the western is very mountainous, the high Andes chain dividing the two sections. This mountain range runs nearly due south from the southern boundary of Colombia to the Peruvian frontier. It has a number of high peaks, all of volcanic origin, among them Chimborazo (20,500 ft.), and many volcanoes. Of the latter, Cotopaxi (19,613 ft.), Tunguragua (16,690 ft.), and Sangai (17,464 ft.) are still active; Antisana (19,335 ft.), Pichincha (15,918 ft.), etc. have been extinct for a century or more; while Altar, Cotocachi, etc. show traces only of activity in ages long past. The Ecuadorian tableland and higher mountain valleys are temperate, though the temperature is low in the greater altitudes. The year is divided into the dry and the wet season. Under the Equator, however, there is little difference between the seasons. The coast valleys and shores are very hot and the climate generally unhealthful. Ecuador has but one navigable river, the Guayas, which empties into the Gulf of Guayaquil. The other streams of Western Ecuador are of little importance. The flora is luxuriant except in high altitudes. Both lower slopes of the Andes are densely wooded. On the coast there is an arid zone of limited extent; the larger portion, however, is very fertile as far as the Peruvian boundary at Tumbez. The inland forests in the south are rich in cinchona bark, and extend easterly to a height of nearly 10,000 feet. Then follows a sub-Andean zone for the next 3500 feet, in which cereals thrive in an average temperature of from 53° to 59° Fahr. This is followed by what are called the pàramos, cold and stormy wastes, treeless, and exposed to daily snows, which reach an altitude of 15,000 feet above sea-level, and where the tough puna-grass flourishes. On the eastern slope of the Andes dense forests are found again and the cinnamon tree. Animal life is tropical and is found in proportion to the vegetation. As far as known Ecuador is fairly rich in minerals. It is the only South American state, with the exception of Colombia, where emeralds have been found in any quantity (near the coast at Manta and Esmeraldas); their location, however, is uncertain.

The population is estimated at 1,272,000, of whom about 400,000 are supposed to be Indians. Exact statistics, however, do not exist. Of the 400,000, one-half is allowed to the wild forest-tribes of the Eastern section and the other half to the remnants of the diverse sedentary tribes which formerly occupied the tableland and coast. The whole country is divided into fifteen provinces besides the Eastern territory and the Galapagos Islands.

HISTORY.—Of the pre-Columbian conditions and languages of the Indians of Ecuador little is known. The coast tribes have almost disappeared and those of the higher regions have adopted Spanish customs. That they differed from the Peruvian Quichua seems likely. The best-known were the Canaris, the Carangas, and the Puruaes or Puruays; a tribe known as the Scyri is mentioned in the neighborhood of Quito. They were all sedentary; knew how to work gold, silver, copper, and possibly bronze; and practiced the fetichism common to primitive Americans. The coast tribes built their houses of wood and cane, while those of the interior used stone. They were skillful navigators, some of their vessels being estimated at thirty tons, and propelled by oars and cotton sails.

The Spaniards, led by Francisco Pizarro, first saw the coast of Ecuador in 1525. From Tacamez, or Atacames, where they touched, Pizarro dispatched Ruiz, his pilot, to the south. In the account of Pizarro we have the earliest description of the Ecuadorian coast people. He sailed south beyond the present limits of Peru, verifying his pilot's reports, and in 1528 returned to Spain to prepare for the conquest of Peru. He returned in 1531, landing at Coaque, and, marching south along the shore, established himself, despite the hostility of the natives, on the Island of Punà. The permanent Spanish occupation of Ecuador, however, began in 1534, from Piura in Peru under Sebastian de Belalcazar. He had a tedious campaign to Quito, in which he was assisted by the Canaris. In 1534 three towns were established: San Francisco de Quito (August 15) at Riobaml thirteen days later transferred to its present site, Chimbo; and Guayaquil, also originally founded at a place distinct from the one it now occupies. Meanwhile Pedro de Alvarado had landed on the coast with a considerable force from Guatemala. Reaching the central plateau he was confronted by Belalcazar and Diego de Almagro the elder. An amicable agreement was reached, and Gonzalo Pizarro pushed into the cinnamon country, but made little headway and had to turn back. His lieutenant, Orellana, however, floated down the Amazon and landed on the Isle of Trinidad, whence he carried to Spain the first information about southeastern Ecuador.

The second epoch of civil wars in Peru, the uprising of Gonzalo Pizarro against the viceroy Nunez de la Vela, came to an end with the defeat and death of the viceroy near Quito, January 16, 1546. Quito became the headquarters of the Crown's representative, and with this as a basis the independence movement was put down. During the colonial period the Church founded institutions of learning such as the University of Quito and established a printing press at the same place in 1760. Political disturbances were few, but during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries volcanic and seismic phenomena were frequent and often disastrous. An attempt was made in 1809 to overthrow the Spanish power, and Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela, together with the rest of Spanish South America, then engaged in efforts towards independence. In 1820 Guayaquil succeeded in throwing off Spanish control, and the battle of Pichincha (May 22, 1822) finally put an end to the domination of the mother country. Ecuador, with Colombia and Venezuela, next formed an independent confederacy until 1830, hen the union was dissolved and the first Ecuadorian congress met. Since then Ecuador has been torn by internal dissensions and foreign complications, chiefly with Colombia. The opposing political parties are the Conservatives, or Clericals, and the Liberals. Since 1893 the latter have been in power and have to a great extent adopted a policy of secularization in church matters. From 1833 to 1908 Ecuador has had nine-teen presidents.

GOVERNMENT, EDUCATION, ETC.—Ecuador is a constitutional republic. From 1830 to 1883 it had no less than ten constitutions; the last was adopted in 1897. The executive head is the president, elected with the vice-president directly by the people for a term of four years. The senators (30) and the deputies (41) are also elected by direct vote, the former for four, the latter for two, years. Congress meets biennially at Quito, the capital, on August 10, and is in session for sixty days. The principal cities are: Quito (80,000), Guayaquil (51,000), Cuenca (30,000), Riobamba (18,-000), and five of 10,000 or more inhabitants. Guayaquil is the chief seaport. In 1904 Ecuador had 168 miles of railroad and 2565 miles of telegraph, both of which have since been added to. The monetary unit is the lucre, about equal to the peso of other Spanish-American countries, but subject to fluctuation in value. The chief exports are cacao, vegetable ivory, indiarubber, and straw hats.

Educational statistics are scanty. There is a university at Quito with thirty-two professors and two hundred and sixteen students (1905). Institutions for higher education are found at Guayaquil and Cuenca. The number of secondary schools is 35; primary schools 1088 with 1498 teachers and 68,380 pupils; and 9 high schools and colleges.

RELIGION.—Soon after the discovery of the country missionaries began their labors in Ecuador, and in 1545 the Bishopric of Quito was erected. Work among the different Indian tribes on the tributaries of the Amazon was difficult, and the Dominican missions were destroyed in 1599 by the savage Jivaros. Later, however, the Dominicans reestablished themselves and were assisted by the Jesuits who had been in Quito since 1596. By the close of the seventeenth century Ecuador was well evangelized, but after the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, who on the Napo alone had thirty-three missions with 100,000 inhabitants, the Dominicans were unable to keep up the work and the natives fell back into paganism. The revolution destroyed all traces of two hundred years of untiring labors. Since 1848 Ecuador has formed an ecclesiastical province. The population is Catholic except for a small number of foreigners and a few pagan Indians in the East.

Up to 1861 the government was in the hands of the Liberal and largely anti-Catholic party. When Garcia Moreno (q.v.) was elected president (1861-65 and 1869-75), however, he reorganized civil and religious affairs. Under him a concordat (November 20, 1863) was concluded with Rome, new dioceses were erected, schools and missions given to the Jesuits (who had been recalled) and others, and in 1874, at the time of the spoliation of the Holy See, ten per cent of the State's income was guaranteed to the pope. Moreno was murdered August 6, 1875, and his death not only put an end to the concordat, but under the new regime which succeeded him a series of persecutions occurred. In 1885, when Bishop Schumacher took charge, nearly all the native clergy were suspended and replaced by Europeans and practically a new hierarchy established. The religious and moral education of the people was likewise in bad condition. The revolution of Alfaro in 1895 was a severe blow to the Church. The orders, among them the Capuchins, Salesians, Missionaries of Steyl, and the various sisterhoods, were all banished and Bishop Schumacher obliged to flee.

The State religion is the Catholic, but other creeds are not interfered with. Since tithes were abolished the State has provided for the maintenance of Catholic worship; it also supports religious educational institutions, such as the three seminaries at Quito and six elsewhere, one in each of the six dioceses. Civil marriage was recognized in 1902, and two years later the Church and its property were placed under State control. At the same time it was enacted that no new or foreign religious order would be permitted in the country. Suffragan to Quito, which became an archbishopric in 1848, are: Cuenca (1786), Guayaquil (1837), Ibarra (1862), Loja (1866), Puerto, or Porto, Viejo (1871), Riobamba (1863). There are also four vicariates Apostolic subject to the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs: Canelos and Macas, Mendez and Gualaquiza, Napo, Zamora.

AD. F. BANDELIER

title: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Ecuador