Chapter 18

Authorities.—For the history of the subject, see W.W.R. Ball,Short History of Mathematics(1901), and F. Cajori,History of Elementary Mathematics(1896); or more detailed information in M. Cantor,Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik(1894-1901). L.C. Conant,The Number-Concept(1896), gives a very full account of systems of numeration. For the latter, and for systems of notation, reference may also be made to Peacock’s article “Arithmetic” in theEncyclopaedia Metropolitana, which contains a detailed account of the Greek system. F. Galton,Inquiries into Human Faculty(1883), contains the first account of number-forms; for further examples and references see D.E. Phillips, “Genesis of Number-Forms,”American Journal of Psychology, vol. viii. (1897). There are very few works dealing adequately but simply with the principles of arithmetic. Homersham Cox,Principles of Arithmetic(1885), is brief and lucid, but is out of print.The Psychology of Number, by J.A. McLellan and J. Dewey (1895), contains valuable suggestions (some of which have been utilized in the present article), but it deals only with number as the measure of quantity, and requires to be read critically. This work contains references to Grube’s system, which has been much discussed in America: for a brief explanation, see L. Seeley,The Grube Method of Teaching Arithmetic(1890). On the teaching of arithmetic, and of elementary mathematics generally, see J.W.A. Young,The Teaching of Mathematics in the Elementary and the Secondary School(1907); D.E. Smith,The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics(1900), also contains an interesting general sketch; W.P. Turnbull,The Teaching of Arithmetic(1903), is more elaborate. E.M. Langley,A Treatise on Computation(1895), has notes on approximate and abbreviated calculation. Text-books on arithmetic in general and on particular applications are numerous, and any list would soon be out of date. Recent English works have been influenced by the briefReport on the Teaching of Elementary Mathematics, issued by the Mathematical Association (1905); but this is critical rather than constructive. The Association has also issued aReport on the Teaching of Mathematics in Preparatory Schools(1907). In the United States of America theReport of the Committee of Tenon secondary school studies (1893) and theReport of the Committee of Fifteenon elementary education (1893-1894), both issued by the United States Bureau of Education, have attracted a good deal of attention. Sir O. Lodge,Easy Mathematics, chiefly Arithmetic(1905), treats the subject broadly in its practical aspects. The student who is interested in elementary teaching should consult the annual bibliographies in thePedagogical Seminary; an article by D.E. Phillips in vol. v. (October 1897) contains references to works dealing with the psychological aspect of number. For an account of German methods, see W. King,Report on Teaching of Arithmetic and Mathematics in the Higher Schools of Germany(1903).

(W. F. Sh.)

1See alsoWeights And Measures.

ARIUS(Ἄρειος), a name celebrated in ecclesiastical history, not so much on account of the personality of its bearer as of the “Arian” controversy which he provoked. Our knowledge of Arius is scanty, and nothing certain is known of his birth or of his early training. Epiphanius of Salamis, in his well-known treatise against eighty heresies (Haer.lxix. 3), calls him a Libyan by birth, and if the statement of Sozomen, a church historian of the 5th century, is to be trusted, he was, as a member of the Alexandrian church, connected with the Meletian schism (seeMeletius of Lycopolis), and on this account excommunicated by Peter of Alexandria, who had ordained him deacon. After the death of Peter (November 25, 311), he was received into communion by Peter’s successor, Achillas, elevated to the presbytery, and put in charge of one of the great city churches, Baucalis, where he continued to discharge his duties with apparent faithfulness and industry after the accession of Alexander. This bishop also held him in high repute. Theodoret (Hist. Eccl.i. 2) indeed does not hesitate to say that Arius was chagrined because Alexander, instead of himself, had been appointed to the see of Alexandria, and that the beginning of his heretical attitude is, in consequence, to be attributed to discontent and envy. But this must be rejected, for it is a common explanation of heretical movements with the early church historians, and there is no evidence for it in the original sources. However, Arius was ambitious. Epiphanius, using older documents, describes him as a man inflamed with his own opinionativeness, of a soft and smooth address, calculated to persuade and attract, especially women: “in no time he had drawn away seven hundred virgins from the church to his party.” When the controversy broke out, Arius was an old man.

The real causes of the controversy lay in differences as to dogma. Arius had received his theological education in the school of the presbyter Lucian of Antioch, a learned man, and distinguished especially as a biblical scholar. The latter was a follower of Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, who had been excommunicated in 269, but his theology differed from that of his master in a fundamental point. Paul, starting with the conviction that the One God cannot appear substantially (οὐσιωδῶς) on earth, and, consequently, that he cannot have become a person in Jesus Christ, had taught that God had filled the man Jesus with his Logos (σοφία) or Power (δύναμις). Lucian, on the other hand, persisted in holding that the Logos became a person in Christ. But since he shared the above-mentioned belief of his master, nothing remained for him but to see in the Logos a second essence, created by God before the world, which came down to earth and took upon itself a human body. In this body the Logos filled the place of the intellectual or spiritual principle. Lucian’s Christ, then, was not “perfect man,” for that which constituted in him the personal element was a divine essence; nor was he “perfect God,” for the divine essence having become a person was other than the One God, and of a nature foreign to him. It is this idea which Arius took up and interpreted unintelligently. His doctrinal position is explained in his letters to his patron Eusebius, bishop of the imperial city of Nicomedia, and to Alexander of Alexandria, and in the fragments of the poem in which he set forth his dogmas, which bears the enigmatic title of “Thalia” (θάλεια), used in Homer, in the sense of “a goodly banquet,” most unjustly ridiculed by Athanasius as an imitation of the licentious style of the drinking-songs of the Egyptian Sotades (270B.C.). From these writings it can even nowadays be seen clearly that the principal object which he had in view was firmly to establish the unity and simplicity of the eternal God. However far the Son may surpass other created beings, he remains himself a created being, to whom the Father before all time gave an existence formed out of not being (ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων); hence the name ofExoukontianssometimes given to Arius’s followers. On the other hand, Arius affirmed of the Son that he was “perfect God, only-begotten” (πλήρης θεὸς μονογενής); that through him God made the worlds (αἰῶνες, ages); that he was the product or offspring of the Father, and yet not as one among things made (γέννημα ἀλλ᾽ οὐχ ὡς ἓν τὤν γεγενημένων). In his eyes it was blasphemy when he heard that Alexander proclaimed in public that “as God is eternal, so is his Son,—when the Father, then the Son,—the Son is present in God without birth (ἀγεννήτως), ever-begotten (ἀειγενής), an unbegotten-begotten (ἀγεννητογενής).” He detected in his bishop Gnosticism, Manichaeism and Sabellianism, and was convinced that he himself was the champion of pure doctrine against heresy. He was quite unconscious that his own monotheism was hardly to be distinguished from that of the pagan philosophers, and that his Christ was a demi-god.

For years the controversy may have been fermenting in the college of presbyters at Alexandria. Sozomen relates that Alexander only interfered after being charged with remissness in leaving Arius so long to disturb the faith of the church. According to the general supposition, the negotiations which led to the excommunication of Arius and his followers among the presbyters and deacons took place in 318 or 319, but there are good reasons for assigning the outbreak of the controversy to the time following the overthrow of Licinius by Constantine,i.e.to the year 323. In any case, from this time events followed one another to a speedy conclusion. Arius was not without adherents, even outside Alexandria. Those bishops who, like him, had passed through the school of Lucian were not inclined to let him fall without a struggle, as they recognized in the views of their fellow-student their own doctrine, only set forth in a somewhat radical fashion. In addressing to Eusebius of Nicomedia a request for his help, Arius ended with the words: “Be mindful of our adversity, thou faithful comrade of Lucian’s school (συλλουκιανιστής)”; and Eusebius entered the lists energetically on his behalf. But Alexander too was active; by means of a circular letter he published abroad the excommunication of his presbyter, and the controversy excited more and more general interest.

It reached even the ears of Constantine. Now sole emperor, he saw in the one Catholic church the best means of counteracting the movement in his vast empire towards disintegration; and he at once realized how dangerous dogmatic squabbles might prove to its unity. His letter, preserved by the imperial biographer, Eusebius of Caesarea, is a state document inspired by a wisely conciliatory policy; it made out both parties to be equally in the right and in the wrong, at the same time giving them both to understand that such questions, the meaning of which would be grasped only by the few, had better not be brought into public discussion; it was advisable to come to an agreement where the difference of opinion was not fundamental. This well-meaning attempt at reconciliation, betraying as it did no very deep understanding of the question, came to nothing. No course was left for the emperor except to obtain a general decision. This took, place at the fist oecumenical council, which was convened in Nicaea (q.v.) in 325. After various turns in the controversy, it was finally decided, against Arius, that the Son was “of the same substance” (ὁμοούσιος) with the Father, and all thought of his being created or even subordinate had to be excluded. Constantine accepted the decision of the council and resolved to uphold it. Arius and the two bishops of Marmarica Ptolemais, who refused to subscribe the creed, were excommunicated and banished to Illyria, and even Eusebius of Nicomedia, who accepted the creed, but not its anathemas, was exiled to Gaul. Alexander returned to his see triumphant, but died soon after, and was succeeded by Athanasius (q.v.), his deacon, with whose indomitable fortitude and strange vicissitudes the further course of the controversy is bound up.

It only remains for us here to sketch what is known of the future career of Arius and the Arians. Although defeated at the council of Nicaea, the Arians were by no means subdued. Constantine, while strongly disposed at first to enforce the Nicene decrees, was gradually won to a more conciliatory policy by the influence especially of Eusebius of Caesarea and Eusebius of Nicomedia, the latter of whom returned from exile in 328 and won the ear of the emperor, whom he baptized on his death-bed. In 330 even Arius was recalled from banishment. Athanasius, on the other hand, was banished to Trèves in 335. During his absence Arius returned to Alexandria, but even now the people are said to have raised a fierce riot against the heretic. In 336 the emperor was forced to summon him to Constantinople. Bishop Alexander reluctantly assented to receive him once more into the bosom of the church, but before the act of admission was completed, Arius was suddenly taken ill while walking in the streets, and died in a few moments. His death seems to have exercised no influence worth speaking of on the course of events. His theological radicalism had in any case never found many convinced adherents. It was mainly the opposition to the Homoousios, as a formulaopen to heretical misinterpretation, and not borne out by Holy Writ, which kept together the large party known as Semiarians, who under the leadership of the two Eusebiuses carried on the strife against the Nicenes and especially Athanasius. Under the sons of Constantine Christian bishops in numberless synods cursed one another turn by turn. In the western half of the empire Arianism found no foothold, and even the despotic will of Constantius, sole emperor after 351, succeeded only for the moment in subduing the bishops exiled for the sake of their belief. In the east, on the other hand, the Semiarians had for long the upper hand. They soon split up into different groups, according as they came to stand nearer to or farther from the original position of Arius. The actual centre was formed by theHomoii, who only spoke generally of a likenessὁμοιότηςof the Son to the Father; to the left of them were theAnomoii, who, with Arius, held the Son to be unlikeἀνόμοιοςthe Father; to the right, theHomoiousianswho, taking as their catchword “likeness of nature”ὁμοιότης κατ᾽ οὐσίαν, thought that they could preserve the religious content of the Nicene formula without having to adopt the formula itself. Since this party in the course of years came more and more into sympathy with the representatives of the Nicene party, theHomoousians, and notably with Athanasius, the much-disputed formula became more and more popular, till the council summoned in 381 at Constantinople, under the auspices of Theodosius the Great, recognized the Nicene doctrine as the only orthodox one. Arianism, which had lifted up its head again under the emperor Valens, was thereby thrust out of the state church. It lived to flourish anew among the Germanic tribes at the time of the great migrations. Goths, Vandals, Suebi, Burgundians and Langobardi embraced it; here too as a distinctive national type of Christianity it perished before the growth of medieval Catholicism, and the name of Arian ceased to represent a definite form of Christian doctrine within the church, or a definite party outside it.

The best account of the proceedings, both political and theological, may be found in the following books:—H.M. Gwatkin,Studies of Arianism(2nd edit., Cambridge, 1900); A. Harnack,History of Dogma(Eng. trans., 1894-1899); J.F. Bethune-Baker,An Introduction to the Early History of Christian Doctrine(London, 1903); W. Bright,The Age of the Fathers(London, 1903). Cardinal Newman’s celebratedArians of the Fourth Centuryis interesting more from the controversial than from the historical point of view. See also Paavo Snellman,Der Anfang des arianischen Streites(Helsingfors, 1904); Sigismund Rogala,Die Anfange des arianischen Streites(Paderborn, 1907).

(G. K.)

ARIZONA(from the Spanish-IndianArizonac, of unknown meaning,—possibly “few springs,”—the name of an 18th-century mining camp in the Santa Cruz valley, just S. of the present border of Arizona), a state on the S.W. border of the United States of America, lying between 31° 20′ and 37° N. lat. and 109° 2′ and 114° 45′ W. long. It is bounded N. by Utah, E. by New Mexico, S. by Mexico and W. by California and Nevada, the Colorado river separating it from California and in part from Nevada. On the W. is the Great Basin. Arizona itself is mostly included in the great arid mountainous uplift of the Rocky Mountain region, and partly within the desert plain region of the Gulf of California, or Open Basin region. The whole state lies on the south-western exposure of a great roof whose crest, along the continental divide in western New Mexico, pitches southward. Its altitudes vary from 12,800 ft. to less than 100 ft. above the sea. Of its total area of 113,956 sq. m. (water surface, 116 sq. m.), approximately 39,000 lie below 3000 ft., 27,000 from 3000 to 5000 ft., and 47,000 above 5000 ft.

Physical Features.—Three characteristic physiographic regions are distinctly marked: first the great Colorado Plateau, some 45,000 sq. m. in area, embracing all the region N. and E. of a line drawn from the Grand Wash Cliffs in the N.W. corner of the state to its E. border near Clifton; next a broad zone of compacted mountain ranges with a southern limit of similar trend; and lastly a region of desert plains, occupying somewhat more than the S.W. quarter of the state. The plateau region has an average elevation of 6000-8000 ft. eastward, but it is much broken down in the west. The plateau is not a plain. It is dominated by high mountains, gashed by superb canyons of rivers, scarred with dry gullies and washes, the beds of intermittent streams, varied with great shallow basins, sunken deserts, dreary levels, bold buttes, picturesque mesas, forests and rare verdant bits of valley. In the N.W. there is a giddy drop into the tremendous cut of the Grand Canyon (q.v.) of the Colorado river. The surface in general is rolling, with a gentle slope northward, and drains through the Little Colorado (or Colorado Chiquito), Rio Puerco and other streams into the Grand Canyon. Along the Colorado is the Painted Desert, remarkable for the bright colours—red, brown, blue, purple, yellow and white—of its sandstones, shales and clays. Within the desert is a petrified forest, the most remarkable in the United States. The trees are of mesozoic time, though mostly washed down to the foot of the mesas in which they were once embedded, and lying now amid deposits of a later age. Blocks and logs of agate, chalcedony, jasper, opal and other silicate deposits lie in hundreds over an area of 60 sq. m. The forest is now protected as a national reserve against vandalism and commercialism. Everywhere are evidences of water and wind erosion, of desiccation and differential weathering. This is the history of the mesas, which are the most characteristic scenic feature of the highlands. The marks of volcanic action, particularly lava-flows, are also abundant and widely scattered.

Separating the plateau from the mountain region is an abrupt transition slope, often deeply eroded, crossing the entire state as has been indicated. In localities the slope is a true escarpment falling 150 and even 250 ft. per mile. In the Aubrey Cliffs and along the Mogollon mesa, which for about 200 m. parts the waters of the Gila and the Little Colorado, it often has an elevation of 1000 to 2000 ft., and the ascent is impracticable through long distances to the most daring climber. It is not of course everywhere so remarkable, or even distinct, and especially after its trend turns southward W. of Clifton, it is much broken down and obscured by erosion and lava deposits. The mountain region has a width of 70 to 150 m., and is filled with short parallel ranges trending parallel to the plateau escarpment. Many of the mountains are extinct volcanoes. In the San Francisco mountains, in the north central part of the state, three peaks rise to from 10,000 to 12,794 ft.; three others are above 9000 ft.; all are eruptive cones, and among the lesser summits are old cinder cones. The S.E. corner of Arizona is a region of greatly eroded ranges and gentle aggraded valleys. This mountain zone has an average elevation of not less than 4000 ft., while in places its crests are 5000 ft. above the plains below. The line dividing the two regions runs roughly from Nogales on the Mexican border, past Tucson, Florence and Phoenix to Needles (California), on the W. boundary. These plains, the third or desert region of the state, have their mountains also, but they are lower, and they are not compacted; the plains near the mountain region slope toward the Gulf of California across wide valleys separated by isolated ranges, then across broad desert stretches traversed by rocky ridges, and finally there is no obstruction to the slope at all. Small parts of the desert along the Mexican boundary are shifting sand.

(Click to enlarge.)

Climate.—As may be inferred from the physical description, Arizona has a wide variety of local climates. In general it is characterized by wonderfully clear air and extraordinarily low humidity. The scanty rainfall is distributed from July to April, with marked excess from July to September and a lesser maximum in December. May and June are very dry. Often during a month, sometimes for several months, no rain falls over the greatest part of Arizona. Very little rain comes from the Pacific or the Gulf of California, the mountains and desert, as well as the adverse winds, making it impossible. Rain and snow fall usually from clouds blown from the Gulf of Mexico and not wholly dried in Texas. The mountainous areas are the only ones of adequate precipitation; the northern slope of the Colorado Plateau is almost destitute of water; the region of least precipitation is the “desert” region. The mean annual rainfall varies from amounts of 2 to 5.5 in. at various points in the lower gulf valley, and on the western border to amounts of 25 to30 in. in the mountains. The highest recorded maximum in Arizona is 35 in. The proportion of perfectly clear days in the year varies at different points from a half to two-thirds; of the rest not more than half are without brilliant sunshine part of the day. Local thunderstorms and cloud-bursts are a characteristic phenomenon, inundating limited areas and transforming dried-up streams into muddy torrents carrying boulders and débris. Often in the plateau country the dry under-air absorbs the rain as it falls; and rarely in the Hopi Country do flooded gullies “run through” to the Little Colorado. The country of the cliff-dwellers in the N.E. is desert-like. Only points high in altitude catch much rain. Mountain snows feed the Gila, the Little Colorado, and the Colorado rivers. The Colorado, apart from the Gila, draws little water from Arizona. The mountain zone W. of Prescott drains into the Colorado, and to the S. and E. into the Gila; and the latter is by far the heavier drainage in volume. The floods come in May and June, and during the wet season the rivers, all with steep beds in their upper courses, wash along detritus that lower down narrows, and on smaller streams almost chokes, their courses. These gradients enable the inconstant streams tributary to the Colorado to carve their canyons, some of which are in themselves very remarkable, though insignificant beside the Grand Canyon. Many streams that are turned in spring or by summer cloud-bursts into torrents are normally mere water films or dry gulches. Even the Gila is dry in its bed part of the year at its mouth near Yuma. From the Gila to the southern boundary the parched land gives no water to the sea, and the international boundary runs in part through a true desert. In the hot season there is almost no surface water. Artesian wells are used in places, as in the stock country of the Baboquivari valley.

The temperature of Arizona is somewhat higher than that of points of equal latitude on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. In the mountains on the plateau it ranges from that of the temperate zone to that of regions of perpetual snow; S. of the mountains it ranges from temperate heats in the foothills to semi-tropic heat in the lower valleys of the Gila and Colorado. The average annual temperature over the region N. of 34′ N. is about 55°; that of the region S. is about 68°. The warmest region is the lower Gila valley. Here the hottest temperature of the year hovers around 130°, the mean for the hottest month (July) is about 98°, and the mean for the year is from 68.9°-74.4° F. at different points. Some parts of the Santa Cruz valley are equally hot. In the hottest (western) portions of the true desert on the Mexican border the daily maximum temperature is about 110° F.; but owing to the rapid radiation in the dry, clear, cloudless air the temperature frequently falls 40-50° in the night. The coldest points on the high plateau have annual means as low as 45-48°, and a mean for the coldest month at times below 20° F. The range from high to low extreme on the plateau may be as great as 125°, but in the S.W. it is only about 70-80° F. The daily variation (not uncommonly 60° F.) is of course greatest in the most arid regions, where radiation is most rapid. And of all Arizona it should be said that owing to the extreme dryness of the air, evaporation from moist surfaces is very rapid,1so that the high temperatures here are decidedly less oppressive than much lower temperatures in a humid atmosphere. The great difference between absolute and sensible temperature is a very important climatic characteristic of Arizona. Generally speaking, during two-thirds of the year the temperature is really delightful; the nights are cool, the mornings bracing, the days mild though splendid. Intense heat prevails in July, August and September. In lowness of humidity (mean annual relative humidity at Yuma about 39, at Phoenix 36.7, at Tucson 37.8) and clarity of atmosphere, southern Arizona rivals Upper Egypt and other famous arid health resorts.

Fauna and Flora.—Within the borders of Arizona are areas representative of every life zone save the humid tropical. From the summit of the San Francisco Mountains one may pass rapidly through all these down into the Painted Desert. The Boreal-Canadian, Transition and Upper Sonoran embrace the highlands. Coyotes are very common; wild cats and mountain lions are fairly plentiful. Deer and antelope are represented by various species. Prairie-dogs, jack-rabbits, crows and occasional ravens, quail, grouse, pheasants and wild turkeys are also noteworthy in a rather scant animal life. Characteristic forms of the Upper Sonoran zone are the burrowing owl, Nevada sage-thrush, sage-thrasher and special species of orioles, kangaroo rats, mice, rabbits and squirrels. The Lower Sonoran covers the greatest part of southern and western Arizona, as well as the immediate valleys of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers. Its animal life is in the main distinguished in species only from that of the Upper Sonoran belt, including among birds, the desert sparrow, desert thrasher, mocking-bird, hooded oriole; and among mammals small nocturnal species of kangaroo rats, pocket mice, mice and bats. Jaguars occasionally stray into Arizona from Mexico. Lizards and toads are conspicuous in the more desert areas. Snakes are not numerous. The Gila-monster, tarantula, the scorpion and thelyphonus, scolopender and julus occur in some localities in the rainy season. The Arid-Tropical zone is represented by a narrow belt along the lower Colorado river, with a short arm extending into the valley of the Gila. The country is so arid that it supports only desert birds and mammals. Camels were very successfully employed as pack animals on the Tule desert in the palmy days of Virginia City, Nevada, before the advent of railways.

The general conditions of distribution of the fauna of Arizona are shown even more distinctly by the flora. There are firs and spruces on the mountains, characteristic of the Boreal zone; pines characteristic of the Transition zone; piñon juniper, greasewood and the universally conspicuous sage-brush, characteristic of the Upper Sonoran zone. In the Lower Sonoran belt, soapweed, acacias (Palo Verde orParkinsonia torreyana), agaves, yuccas and dasylirions, the creosote bush and mesquite tree, candle wood, and about seventy-five species of cactuses—among them omnipresent opuntiae and great columnar “Chayas”—make up a striking vegetation, which in its colours of dull grey and olive harmonizes well with the rigidity and forbidding barrenness of the plains. It has exercised profound influence upon the industries, arts, faiths and general culture of the Indians. In places the giant cactus grows in groves, attaining a height of 40 and even 50 ft. The mesquite varies in size from a tangled thorny shrub to a spreading tree as much as 3 ft. in diameter and 50 ft. high; it is normally perhaps half as high, and 6-8 in. in diameter. Enduring hardily great extremes of heat and moisture, it is throughout the arid South-west the most important, and in many localities the only important, native tree. From the great juicy, leafless, branchless stalk of the yucca, soap is prepared, and strong fibres useful in making paper, rope and fabrics. The fibre of the agave is also made into rope and its juice into pulque. The canaigre grows wild and is also cultivated. It is easy to exaggerate greatly the barrenness of an arid country. There are fine indigenous grasses that spring up over the mesas after the summer rains, furnishing range for live-stock; some are extraordinarily independent of the rainfall. In the most arid regions there is a small growth of green in the rainy season, and a rich display of small wild-flowers, as well as the enormous flower clusters of the yucca, and blooms in pink and orange, crimson, yellow and scarlet of the giant cactus and its fellows. Even in the Mexican border, desert oak, juniper and manzanita cover the mountains, and there is a vigorous though short-lived growth of grasses and flower from July to October. The cliff-dweller country supports a scant vegetation—a few cottonwood in the washes, a few cedars on the mesas.

Continuous forest areas are scant. A fair variety of trees—cottonwood, sycamore, ash, willow, walnut and cherry—grow in thickets in the canyons, and each mountain range is a forest area. Rainfall varying with the altitude, the lower timber line below which precipitation is insufficient to sustain a growth of trees is about 7000 ft., and the upper timber line about 11,500 ft.Oaks, juniper, piñon, cedars, yellow pine, fir and spruce grow on the mountains and over large areas of the plateau country.2The Coconino forest is one of the largest unbroken pine forests (about 6000 sq. m.) in the United States. Since 1898 about 86% of the wooded lands have been made reservations, and work has been done also to preserve the forest areas in the mountains in the south-east, from which there are few streams of permanent flow to the enclosing arid valleys.

Soil.—The soils in the southern part of Arizona are mainly sandy loams, varying from light loam to heavy, close adobe; on the plateaus is what is known as “mesa” soil; and along the rivers are limited overflow plains of fine sediment—especially along the Colorado and the river Verde. These soils are in general rich, but deficient in nitrogen and somewhat in humus; and in limited areas white alkaline salts are injuriously in excess. Virgin soils are densely compact. By far the most useful crops are leguminous green manures, especially alfalfa, which grows four to seven cuttings in a year and as a soil flocculator and nitrogen-storer has proved of the greatest value. The greatest obstacle to agriculture is lack of water. Artesian wells are much used in the south-east. For the reservation of the water-partings—in the past considerably denuded by lumbermen and ranchmen—the increase of the forest areas, and the creation of reservoirs along the rivers, to control their erratic flow3and impound their flood waste for purposes of irrigation, much has been done by the national government. The irrigated areas are only little spots along the permanent streams. In 1900 the farm area was only 2.7% of the total area of the state and only 0.31% was actually improved (including Indian reservations, 0.35%; in 1906, 0.92% was cultivated); of the land actually under crops, 88.5% was irrigated. The improved acreage more than quintupled from 1880 to 1900. The total irrigated area in 1900 was 185,000 acres and in 1902, 247,250 acres. The increase in land values by irrigation from 1890 to 1900 is estimated at $3,500,000. A reservoir was begun in 1904 just below the junction of the Tonto and the Salt with capacity to store 1,330,000 acre-ft. for irrigation, and develop also an electric power sufficient to pump underground water for an additional 50,000 acres at the lowest estimate4of lands lying too high for supply by gravity. Another important undertaking begun about the same time was the throwing of an East Indian weir dam (the only one in the United States) across the Colorado near Yuma, and the confinement of both sides of the lower Gila and Colorado with levees.

Agriculture.—Strawberries and Sahara dates; alfalfa, wheat, barley, corn and sorghum; oranges, lemons, wine grapes, limes, olives, figs, dates, peanuts and sweet potatoes; yams and sugar beets, show the range of agricultural products. The date palm fruits well; figs grow luxuriantly, though requiring much irrigation; almonds do well if protected from spring frosts; sea-island cotton grows in the finest grades, but is not of commercial importance. The country about Yuma is particularly suited to subtropical fruits. Temperate fruits—peaches, pears, apples, apricots and small fruits—do excellently; as do all important vegetables. The fruit industry is becoming more and more important. Farming is very intensive, and crop follows crop in swift succession; in 1905 the yield of barley per acre, 44 bushels, was greater than in any other state or territory, as was the farm price per bushel on the 1st of December, 81 cents; the average yield per acre of hay was the highest in the Union in 1903, 3.46 tons, the general average being 1.54 tons, was fourth in 1904, 2.71 tons (Utah 3.54, Idaho 3.07, Nevada 3.04), the general average being 1.52 tons, and was highest in 1905, 3.75 tons, the general average for the country being 1.54 tons; and in the same three years the average value per acre of hay was greater in Arizona than in any other state of the Union, being $35.78 in 1903, $40.22 in 1904, and $46.39 in 1905, the general averages for the country being $13.93, $13.23 and $13.11 respectively, for the three years. Of the total farm acreage of the state 97.6% were held in 1900 by the whites; and of these 80.2% owned in whole or in part the land they cultivated.

Stock-raising is a leading industry, but it has probably attained its full development. The over-stocking of the ranges has caused much loss in the past, and the almost total eradication of fine native grasses over extended areas. Of the neat cattle (7,042,635) almost 98%, and of the sheep (861,761) almost 100%, were in 1900 pastured wholly or in part upon the public domain. The extension of national forest reserves and the regulations enforced by the United States government for the preservation of the ranges have put limits to the industry. In 1900 the value of live-stock represented 15.7% of the capital invested in agriculture; the value of animals sold or slaughtered for food ($3,204,758) was half the total value of all farm products ($6,997,097). Ostrich farms have been successfully established in the Salt river valley since 1893; in 1907 there were six farms in the Salt river valley, on which there were about 1354 birds; the most successful food for the ostrich is alfalfa.

Minerals.—Mining is the leading industry of Arizona. Contrary to venerable traditions there is no evidence that mining was practised beyond the most inconsiderable extent by aborigines, Spanishconquistadores, or Jesuits. In 1738 an extraordinary deposit of silver nuggets, quickly exhausted (1741), was discovered at Arizonac. At the end of the 18th century the Mexicans considerably developed the mines in the south-east. The second half of the 19th century witnessed several great finds; first, of gold placers on the lower Gila and Colorado (1858-1869); later, of lodes at Tombstone, which flourished from 1879-1886, then decayed, but in 1905 had again become the centre of important mining interests; and still later the development of copper mines at Jerome and around Bisbee. Several of the Arizona copper mines are among the greatest of the world. The Copper Queen at Bisbee from 1880-1902 produced 378,047,210 ℔ of crude copper, which was practically the total output of the territory till after 1900, when other valuable mines were opened; the Globe, Morenci and Jerome districts are secondary to Bisbee. Important mines of gold and silver, considerable deposits of wolframite, valuable ores of molybdenum and vanadium, and quarries of onyx marble, are also worked. Low-grade coal deposits occur in the east central part of the state and near the junction of the Gila and San Pedro rivers. Some fine gems of peridot, garnet and turquoise have been found. The mineral products of Arizona for 1907 were valued at $56,753,650; of which $51,355,687 (more than that of any other state) was the value of copper; $2,664,000, gold; and $1,916,000, silver. In 1907 the legislature passed an elaborate act providing for the taxation of mines, its principal clause being that the basis of valuation for taxation in each year be one-fourth of the output of the mines in question for the next preceding year.

Manufactures.—The manufacturing industries are of relatively slight importance, though considerable promise attends the experiments with canaigre as a source of tannin. The Navaho and Moqui Indians make woollen blankets and rugs and the Pimas baskets. Onyx marbles of local source are polished at Phoenix. The capital invested in manufacturing industries increased from $9,517,573 in 1900 to $14,395,654 in 1905, or 51.3%, and the value of products from $20,438,987 in 1900 to $28,083,192 in 1905, or 37.4%. Of the total product in 1905 the product of the principal industry, the smelting and refining of copper ($22,761,981), represented 81.1%; it was 9.4% of all the smelting and refining of copper done in the United States in that year. The other manufactures were of much less importance, the principal ones being cars and general shop construction, including repairs by steam railway companies ($1,329,308), lumber and timber products ($960,778), and flour and grist mill products ($743,124).

Two transcontinental railway systems, the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe, were built across Arizona in 1878-1883. They are connected by one line, and a feeder runs S. into Sonora.The railway mileage of Arizona on the 1st of January 1908 was 1935.35 m.

Population.—The population of Arizona in 1880 was 40,440; in 1890, 59,620; in 1900, 122,931 (including 28,623 reservation Indians not counted before); in 1910, 204,354. The native population is of the most diverse origin; the foreign element is equally heterogeneous, but more than half (in 1900, 14,172 out of 24,283 foreign-born) are Mexicans, many of whom are not permanent residents; after 1900, immigrants were largely mine labourers, and included Slavonians and Italians. The largest towns in 1900 were Tucson, Phoenix, which is the capital, Prcscott (pop. 3559), Jerome (pop. 1890, 250; in 1900, 2861); Winslow (pop. 1890, 363; in 1900, 1305), Nogales (pop. 1900, 1761), and Bisbee. The last was an insignificant mining camp in 1880, still unincorporated in 1900, but with an estimated population of 6000 in 1904. It is crowded picturesquely into several narrow confluent ravines. Railway connexion with El Paso was established in 1902. Douglas is another growing camp.

Over thirty Indian tribes are represented in the Indian schools of Arizona. The more important are the Hualapais or Apache-Yumas; the Mohaves; the Yavapais or Apache-Mohaves; the Yumas, whose lesser neighbours on the lower Colorado are the most primitive Indians of the United States in habits; the Maricopas; the Pimas and Papagoes, who figure much in early Arizona history, and who are superior in intelligence, adaptability, application and character; the Hopis or Moquis, possessed of the same good qualities and notably temperate and provident, famous for their prehistoric culture (Tusuyan); the Navaho, and the kindred Apaches, perhaps the most relentless and savage of Indian warriors. All the Indians of Arizona live on reservations save the few non-tribal Indians taxed and treated as active citizens. Even the Apaches after being whipped by relentless war into temporary submission have been bound by treaties which the gifts, vices and virtues of the reservation system have tempted them to observe. The Pimas and Papagoes were early converted by the Spaniards, and retain to-day a smattering of Christianity plentifully alloyed with paganism. Apaches, Pimas, Papagoes have been employed by the United States on great irrigation works, and have proved industrious and faithful labourers. In 1900 there were 1836 taxed Indians, 26,480 reservation Indians not taxed, and in addition many friendly Papagoes unenumerated.

In 1906 the Indian population was estimated as being 14% of the whole population of Arizona, and that they are singularly law-abiding is argued from the fact that in the same year the Indians furnished only 3% of the convicts in the territorial prison.

Government and Education.—Arizona became a territory of the first (or practically autonomous) class in 1863. Her organic law thereafter until 1910 consisted of various sections of the Revised Statutes of the United States. From the beginning she had a territorial legislature. Congress retained ultimately direct control of all government, administration being in the hands of resident officials appointed by the president and Senate. Special mention must be made of the secret police, the Arizona Rangers, organized in 1901 to police the cattle ranges; they are “fearless men, trained in riding, roping, trailing and shooting,” a force whosepersonnelis not known to the general public. The legislature repealed the law licensing public gambling in 1907; enacted a law requiring the payment of $300 per annum as licence fee by retail liquor dealers; and provided for juvenile courts and probationary control of children. In 1907 the total tax valuation of property was $77,705,251; the net debt of the territory $1,022,972, and that of counties and towns $3,123,275. The receipts of the territorial treasury for the year ending on the 30th of June 1907 were $687,386, and the disbursements for the same period were $601,568. A homestead provision (1901) exempts from liability for debts (except mortgages or liens placed before the homestead claim) any homestead belonging to the head of a family, existing in one compact body and valued at not more than $2500; such a homestead a married man may not sell, lease or put a lien on without his wife’s consent. Personal property to the value of $500 is exempt from the same liability. The public school system was established in 1871. A compulsory attendance law applies to children between 6 and 14 years of age, but it is not generally obeyed by the Mexican element of population. In 1907 there was an enrolment of 24,962 out of 33,167 children of school age; there were six high schools—three new in 1906; and the average number of school days was 128.4. In the fiscal year ending June 1907, the total receipts for schools were $697,762, and the expenditures were $701,102. Illiteracy is high, amounting in 1900 to 23.1% of native males, above 21 years of age, and 30.5% of foreign males, principally because of the large number of Indians, Chinese, Japanese and Mexicans in the state. There are two normal schools at Tempe (1886) and Flagstaff (1899), a university at Tucson with an agricultural experiment station that has done much for the industries of Arizona; there is a considerable number of Indian schools, the largest of which are maintained by the national government, and the funds of the university come largely from the same source. The first juvenile reform school, called the Territorial Industrial school, was opened in 1903 at Benson. The territorial prison, formerly at Yuma, was abandoned for a modern building at Florence, Pinal county; and a hospital for the insane is 3 m. from Phoenix.

History.—The history of the South-west is full of interest to the archaeologist. A prehistoric culture widely distributed has left abundant traces. Pueblo ruins are plentiful in the basins of the Gila and Colorado rivers and their tributaries. Geographical conditions and a hard struggle against nature fixed the character of this “aridian” culture, and determined its migrations; the onslaughts of nomad Indians determined the sedentary civilization of the cliff dwellers. A co-operative social economy is evidenced by the traces of great public works, such as canals many miles in length. The pueblos of the Gila valley are held to be older than those of the Colorado. Casa Grande, 15 m. S.E. of a railway station of the same name on the Southern Pacific railway, is the most remarkable of plain ruins in the South-west, the only one of its type in the United States. It resembles the Casa Grande ruin of Chihuahua, Mexico, with its walls of sun-dried puddled clay, and its area of rooms, courts and plazas, surrounded by a wall. It was already a ruin when discovered in 1694 by the Jesuit father Kino. John Russel Bartlett described it in 1854, and in 1889 Congress voted that it be protected as a government reservation; in 1892 it was set apart by the government. Excavations were made there in 1906-1907 by Dr J. Walter Fewkes. Migration was northward. The valleys of the Salt river and its affluents, the Agua Fria, Verde and Tonto, are strewn with aboriginal remains; but especially important in migrations of culture was the Little Colorado. A very considerable population must have lived once in this valley. It is represented to-day by the still undeserted habitats of Zuñi (in New Mexico) and Tusayan; the Moquis, after the Zuñis, are in customs and traditions the best survival of the ancient civilization.

Arizona north of the Gila, save for a very limited and intermittent missionary effort and for scant exploring expeditions, was practically unknown to the whites until well after the beginning of American rule. The Santa Cruz valley, however, has much older annals of a past that charms by its picturesque contrasts with the present. Arizona history begins with the arrival in Sonora in 1536 of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, who, although he had not entered Arizona or New Mexico, had heard of them, and by his stories incited the Spaniards to explore the unknown north in hope of wealth. Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan friar to whom the first reconnaissance was entrusted, was the first Spaniard to enter the limits of Arizona. He crossed the south-eastern corner to Zuñi in 1539, passing through the Santa Cruz valley; and F.V. de Coronado (q.v.) was led by Fray Marcos over the same route in 1540; while Hernando Alarcon explored the Gulf of California and the lower Colorado river. Members of Coronado’s expedition explored the Moqui country and reached the Grand Canyon, and after this a succession of remarkable and heroic explorations followed through the century; which however accomplished little for geography, further confusingand embellishing rather than clearing up its mysteries. All this has left traces in still living myths about the early history of the South-west. Early in the 17th century considerable progress had been made in Christianizing the Pimas, Papagoes and Moquis. Following 1680 came a great Indian revolt in New Mexico and Arizona, and thereafter the Moquis remained independent of Spanish and Christian domination, although visited fitfully by rival Jesuits and Franciscans. In 1732 (possibly in 1720) regular Jesuit missions were founded at Bac (known as an Indian rancheria since the 17th century) and at Guevavi. The region south of the Gila had already been repeatedly explored. In the second half of the century there was a presidio at Tubac (whose name first appears 1752) and some half-dozen pueblos de visita, including the Indian settlement of Tucson.

A few errors should be corrected and some credit given with reference to this early period. The Inquisition never had any jurisdiction whatever over the Indians; compulsory labour by the Indians was never legalized except on the missions, and the law was little violated; they were never compelled to work mines; of mining by the Indians for precious metals there is no evidence; nor by the Jesuits (expelled in 1767, after which their missions and other properties were held by the Franciscans), except to a small extent about the presidio of Tubac, although they did some prospecting. Persistent traditions have greatly exaggerated the former prosperity of the old South-west. The Spaniards probably provoked some inter-tribal intercourse among the Indians, and did something among some tribes for agriculture. Their own farms and settlements, save in the immediate vicinity of the presidio, were often plundered and abandoned, and such settlement as there was was confined to the Santa Cruz valley. From about 1790 to 1822 was a period of peace with the Apaches and of comparative prosperity for church and state. The fine Indian mission church at Bac, long abandoned and neglected, dates from the last decade of the 18th century. The establishment of a presidio at Tucson in 1776 marks its beginning as a Spanish settlement.

The decay of the military power of the presidios during the Mexican war of independence, the expulsion of loyal Spaniards—notably friars—and the renewal of Apache wars, led to the temporary abandonment of all settlements except Tubac and Tucson. The church practically forsook the field about 1828.

American traders and explorers first penetrated Arizona in the first quarter of the 19th century. As a result of the Mexican War, New Mexico, which then included all Arizona north of the Gila, was ceded to the United States. California gold discoveries drew particular attention to the country south of the Gila, which was wanted also for a transcontinental railway route. This strip, known as the “Gadsden Purchase” (seeGadsden, James), was bought in 1854 by the United States, which took possession in 1856. This portion was also added to New Mexico. The Mexicans, pressed by the Apaches, had, in 1848, abandoned even Tubac and Tamacácori, first a visita of Guevavi, and after 1784 a mission. The progress of American settlement was interrupted by the Civil War, which caused the withdrawal of the troops and was the occasion for the outbreak of prolonged Indian wars.

Meanwhile a convention at Tucson in 1856 sent a delegate to Congress and petitioned for independent territorial government. This movement and others that followed were ignored by Congress owing to its division over the general slavery question, and especially the belief of northern members that the control of Arizona was an object of the pro-slavery party. A convention held in April 1860 at Tucson undertook to “ordain and establish,” of its own motion, a provisional constitution until Congress should “organize a territorial government.” This provisional territory constituted all New Mexico south of 34° 40′ N. Officials were appointed and New Mexican legislation for the Arizona counties ignored, but nothing further was done. In 1861 it was occupied by a Texan force, declared for the Confederacy, and sent a delegate (who was not admitted) to the Confederate congress. That body in January 1862 passed a formal act organizing the territory, including in it New Mexico, but in May 1862 the Texans were driven out by a Union force from California. By act of the 24th of February 1863 Congress organized Arizona territory as the country west of 109° W. long. In December an itinerant government sent out complete from Washington crossed the Arizona line and effected a formal organization. The territorial capital was first at Prescott (1863-1867), then at Tucson (1867-1877), again at Prescott (1877-1889), and finally at Phoenix (since 1889).

There have been boundary difficulties with every contiguous state or territory. The early period of American rule was extremely unsettled. The California gold discoveries and overland travel directed many prospecting adventurers to Arizona. For some years there was considerable sentiment favouring filibustering in Sonora. The Indian wars, breeding a habit of dependence on force, and the heterogeneous elements of cattle thieves, Sonoran cowboys, mine labourers and adventurers led to one of the worst periods of American border history. But since about 1880 there is nothing to chronicle but a continued growth in population and prosperity. Agitation for statehood became prominent in territorial politics for some years. In accordance with an act of Congress, approved on the 16th of June 1906, the inhabitants of Arizona and New Mexico voted on the 6th of November 1906 on the question of uniting the territories into a single state to be called Arizona; the vote of New Mexico was favourable to union and statehood, but these were defeated by the vote of Arizona (16,265 against, and 3141 for statehood). In June 1910 the President approved an enabling act providing for the admission of Arizona and New Mexico as separate states.

Back to Index Next