RADIALS 27 



At the same visit in 1925, it was remembered that D-23, whose 

 earliest ring has just been given, also had a large hole in the center, 

 with an estimated loss of 14 cm. or 80 years. This D-23 or Centennial 

 stump, has a large fragment lying near it on the ground, but a search 

 showed that only some outside pieces were there and the central 

 parts were entirely missing. Thus, there is no chance of extending 

 the record of D-23. In this connection it may be added that the 

 oldest tree, D-21, whose earliest complete ring is 1305 b. c, has only 

 an inch missing at the center, perhaps a half-dozen years, and so there 

 is no chance of material extension of that record. The central part of 

 that stump is carefully preserved and mounted in the laboratory.* It is 

 shown in Plate 1. 



A tree known at Springville as "California" and numbered D-47 

 in my series was cut years ago for the purpose of building a sequoia 

 hut. It stood isolated, about half a mile from the Centennial stump 

 in a southerly direction. The stump has a very high, projecting 

 center, with steep ax-cut slope to north and a walk-way all around 

 where slabs of wood were removed. The top and nearly all the trunk 

 He off to the east, with a smooth sawed face 15 feet in diameter, as 

 shown in Plate 4. My v-cut was made on this face, extending past 

 the center. Almost at the last moment of my visit one of Hunting- 

 ton 's grooves (but no number) was found on this stump, showing that 

 he had counted the rings. So for comparison we made a short central 

 v-cut. This was about 12 feet above the ground and also about 

 12 feet below the full radial taken from the log. This will be studied 

 in connection with ancient records. 



♦The smallness of this hole where the infancy rings used to be, suggests that this cutting- 

 level was 20 or 30 feet high on the tree when it was a sapling. If so, the ground about this tree 

 has filled rather than eroded. The adjacent contours make this possible. 



