Arizona sentinel and Yuma weekly examiner., 1913-06-05
THE SECRET OF THE BIG TREES

THE SECRET OF THE BIG TREES
 In the days of the Phrophet Elijah sore famine afflicted the land of Pales the. No rain fell, the brooks ran dry and dire distress prevailed.
 "Go through the land," said King Ahab to the Prophet Obadiah, unto all the fountains of water and unto all the brooks; peradventure we may find grass and save the horses and me mules alive, that we lose not ah the beasts"
 When Obadiah went forth in search of forage he fell in with hs chie1, Elijah, and brought him to Ahab, who greeted him as the troubler of Israel. Then Elijah prayed for rain, accord ing to the Bible story; and the famine was stayed. From (his famine in Palestine, some S70 years before Christ. to the forests of the Sierr Nevadas, in the twentieth century, is a far cry, but the connecting link between the past and the present, be- tween the ancient East and the mod ern West, is found in the big trees of California, the huge species known as Sequoia washngtoniana.
 In a publication entitled "The Se- cret of the Big Trees" by Ellsworth Huntington, just placed on sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. O., it is shown that the growth rings in the big trees ot California indicate that in general the same sequence of climatic changes took place in California and Asia Mi nor show a remarkable resemblance between the two regions. The curves begin with the epoch of the Trojan War, about 1900 B. c. There both curves dip very low, indicating an ep- och of sudden and severe desiccation. That particular period, historians tell us, was one of the most chaotic in all history.
 The famine in the days of Elijah appears in both curves. Apparently at that time the climate did not be- come extremely dry, nothing like so bad as it had been a few hundred years earlier during the twelfth cent ury, but there was rather a dist tinct falling off in the amount of rainfall as compared with the uncommonly good conditions of the preceding cent ury. About seven hundred years be fore Christ both curves stand high in the day when the Greeks were lay ing the foundation of their future greatness and the empires of Mesopo' .tamia were at their height. Then comes a pronounced falling off, with a recovery three or four hundred years before Christ, another decline eliminating about 200 B. C., and a recovery reaching a high point about 50 B. c. The time of Christ, the great era of universal peace under the sway of Rome, was apparently an epoch of favorable climate, time of abundant rain and consequent gooo crops in all the countries around the Mediterranean Sea and eastward in Asia, as well as in California. Next comes a long period of decline cul minating six or seven centuries after the time of Christ. No period in history, save that which centers about 1900 B. C., was more chaotic; and that early period also appears to have been a time of greatly diminish ed rainfall.
 This Jpublicantion, which may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, for five cents, gives a detailed account of the reasons and the work that led to the conclusions given above. It also contains 13 illustra tions, showing the big trees in the Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant National Parks.