THE SECRET OF THE BIG TREES. 
23 
period, historians tell us, was one of the most chaotic in all history. 
The warlike progenitors of the Greeks swarmed into the country 
where they were later to grow great, the Mittani or Hittites came 
down out of the mountains into northern Mesopotamia, tribes from 
Arabia and the Libyan Desert swarmed into Egypt and brought 
-civilization down to the lowest possible ebb, famines such as that 
in the days of Joseph appear in the Egyptian chronicles, the lands 
surrounding Arabia on the north and northwest were swamped by 
the great Aramean invasion, and, in general, war, migrations, and 
disaster prevailed. If America was then inhabited we can scarcely 
doubt that similar disasters took place there; for, if the trees are to 
be trusted, vast areas in dry regions such as Mexico and the south¬ 
western part of the United States, the only places where dense agri¬ 
cultural populations could have dwelt, must have fallen olf tremen¬ 
dously in productivity. 
Some fluctuations of the California curve, such as the upward bend 
between 1000 and 1100 B. C., are missing in that for Asia, not neces¬ 
sarily because they did not exist, but more probably because no facts 
yet happen to have been lighted upon which furnish evidence of 
them. The famine in the days of Elijah appears in both curves. Ap¬ 
parently at that time the climate did not become extremely dry, noth¬ 
ing like so bad as it had been a few hundred years earlier during the 
twelfth century, but there was a rather distinct falling off in the 
amount of rainfall as compared with the uncommonly good condi¬ 
tions of the preceding century. About seven hundred years before 
Christ both curves stand high in the day when the Greeks were laying 
the foundations of their future greatness and the empires of Meso¬ 
potamia were at their height. Then comes a pronounced falling off, 
with a recovery three or four hundred years before Christ, another 
decline culminating 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, a time of abundant rain and consequent good 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 fhe time of Christ. The sudden 
drop of the Asiatic curve about 300 A. D. is probably exaggerated, 
as are those from 550 to 650 A. D. and in 1200. Nevertheless, there 
can be little question as to the general agreement of the two curves 
in showing that an epoch of extraordinary aridity reached its climax 
in the seventh or eighth century of our era, and that another period 
of aridity occurred in the thirteenth century. Previous to the sev¬ 
enth century the Roman world had been in the direst straits because 
of the invasions of barbarians, driven from their homes, it would 
seem, by increasing aridity and the consequent difficulty of obtaining 
