TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Chapter. P»K8- 



Introduction 1-5 



Part I. The Problem of Climatic Changes. 



I. The monsoon climate of Arizona and New Mexico 9 



II. The topographic influence of aridity 15 



III. The arboreal vegetation of the monsoon desert 21 



IV. The climatic theory of terraces 23 



V. The fluctuations of the Otero Soda Lake 37 



VI. The relation of alluvial terraces to man 43 



VII. The ancient people of southern Arizona 47 



VIII. Ruins in northern Sonora and southern New Mexico 65 



IX. The successive stages of culture in northern New Mexico 75 



X. Southern Mexico as a test case 95 



XI. A method of estimating rainfall by the growth of trees, by A. E. Douglass 101 



XII. The correction and comparison of curves of growth 123 



XIII. The curve of the big trees 139 



XIV. The interpretation of the curve of the Sequoia 157 



XV. The peninsula of Yucatan 175 



XVI. The shifting of climatic zones (including the Shift of the Storm Track, by Charles J. KuUmer) 189 



XVII. Guatemala and the highest native American civilization 211 



XVIII. Climatic changes and Maya history 225 



XIX. The solar hypothesis 233 



XX. Crustal deformation as the cause of climatic changes 255 



Part II. Climates op Geologic Time. 



XXI. Climates of Geologic Time, by Charles Schuchert 265 



Part III. Tables. 



A. Average growth of 451 Sequoia trees in California, by decades and centuries, beginning with their youth ; 



basis of corrective factor for age 301 



B. Comparative growth of short-lived and long-Uved Sequoias by groups; factor for longevity 301 



C. List of individual Sequoia trees measured in California in 1911 and 1912 302 



D. Summary of Sequoia trees, by groups 307 



E. Combined corrective factors for age and longevity, Sequoia washingloniana 308 



F. Growth of Sequoia washingloniana by groups for each decade; uncorrected and corrected 311 



G. Summary of growth of Sequoia washingloniana, corrected and uncorrected, including Caspian factor 323 



H. Summary of growth of trees measured by the United States Forest Service 325 



I. Average annual growth of Sequoias 328 



J. Errors of ring counting in northern Arizona pines 330 



Index 331 



iii 



