[6] 



series of coincidences merely, by finding these coiiundenccs 

 so persistent as to prove a correlation; and we could, per-, 

 haps, base our weather prognostications upon sometliing 

 more than a guess, and leai-n whether or not there is a 

 periodicity or cyclical terms of wet and dry years, having 

 the data before us according to the trees selected and exam- 

 ined — reaching back with the Pines from seventy -five to 

 one hundred and fifty years, with the Redwoods from five 

 to seven hundred or more 3 ears, and with the Kquoias of 

 the Sierra from twelve to fourteen centuries, to say nothing 

 of the testimony of other trees, the Madronas and Oaks 

 especially. 



The forest monarchs of the Sierra Nevada and the Coast 

 ranges ofi:er a calendar whose records have been written 

 by the elements; and so far as the giant Sequoias are con- 

 sidered, their evidence would certainly be that of tht old- 

 est inhabitants, substantially supported by their first of kin, 

 the magnificent redwoods of the Coast ranges. 



Another matter of minor, though not of insignificant im- 

 portance, would be the relation between greatest diameter 

 and the points of the compass, as to whether the greatest 

 diameter is persistently incidental to a certain aspect or 

 quarter of the compass. In the specimen of Sequoia gigan- 

 tea above mentioned, Professor Whitney gives the greatest 

 diameter, north and south ^ as twenty -four feet and one and 

 one-half inches: while the "shorter diameter, or that east 

 and west, was 23 [twenty-three] feet, divided exactly even 

 on each side of the center. " " Across its longest diameter, 

 south of center, 13 feet 9J inches." " Across its longest 

 diameter, north of center, 10 feet 4 inches," or twenty -four 

 feet and one and one-half inches, as before stated, a difi'er- 

 ence between the north and the south side of the center, of 

 three feei and Jive aAd one-half inches in favor oj the latter. 



Difference in the diameters may be traced perhaps to, a 

 difference in the amount of heat and hght, which one side of 



