Photograph by A. R. Moore 



A CALIFORNIA LOGGING SCENE) 



In estimating the age of a standing tree the rings on the end of a log of a fallen one 

 are counted, and the number of years required for an inch of average circumferential growth 

 determined. If the fallen tree is in the immediate neighborhood and of approximately the 

 same diameter of the one whose age is to be estimated, the remainder of the problem is 

 simply one of determining this diameter in inches and multiplying it by the average number 

 of rings to the inch. 



water of a pond where a pebble falls. 

 Count them and you can know to a cer- 

 tainty the age of the tree. 



The purchase was completed and the 

 title to the Big Trees passed to the U. S. 

 Government on January 17, 1917. 



By direction of the Board of Managers 

 of the National Geographic Society, the 

 official correspondence on the subject is 

 published below. 



National Geographic Society, 

 November ii, 1916. 

 Dear Secretary Lane: 



I have much pleasure in advising you 

 that the Board of Managers of the Na- 

 tional Geographic Society, being informed 

 of your efforts to enable the United 

 States Government to secure possession 

 of the Giant Forest in the Sequoia Na- 

 tional Park, and of the urgent necessity 

 of $20,000 being made immediately avail- 

 able for the purchase (in addition to the 

 $50,000 appropriated by Congress for the 



purpose), at a meeting yesterday unani- 

 mously adopted the following resolution : 



"Resolved, That the Board of Mana- 

 gers of the National Geographic Society 

 authorizes the expenditure of not exceed- 

 ing $20,000 for the purchase of private 

 lands in the Sequoia National Park, to 

 be donated to the National Government 

 for park purposes, in accordance with 

 the provisions of the Act of Congress, 

 July 1, 191 6, Public 132, 39 Stat., 308, 

 and that this sum shall be paid from the 

 Research Fund of 1916; and that there 

 is given to the President, the Director 

 and Editor, and the Chairman of the Fi- 

 nance Committee, as representatives of 

 the Society, authority to arrange with the 

 Secretary of the Interior the details of 

 the purchase and donation." 



The National Geographic Society has 

 watched with keen interest the rapid de- 

 velopment of our national parks by the 

 Department of the Interior and heartily 



