Re: Rainforest composition and histories of human disturbance

On Tue, 02 Dec 2003 12:46:01 GMT, pete
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>Philip Deitiker wrote:
>> 
>> Ambio. 2003 Aug;32(5):346-52.  Related Articles, Links
>> 
>> Rainforest composition and histories of human disturbance in
>> Solomon Islands.
>> 
>> Bayliss-Smith T, Hviding E, Whitmore T.
>> 
>> Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK.
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> 
>> On the basis of a Solomon Islands case study, we report that
>> tropical rainforests hitherto perceived as untouched,
>> pristine, virgin, etc., are actually sites of former
>> settlement, extensive forest clearance, and
>> irrigated/swidden agriculture.
>
>A tree can become too large, 
>to be practical for stone age people to cut down.
>It's easier to cut down four trees 
>which are the right size for your dugouts,
>than it is to cut down one that is twice as thick, 
>and split it four ways.
>
>During General Sullivan's campaign to extirpate the Iriquois
>from New York, the officer's journals recorded black walnuts
>and sycamores which were six feet in diameter and ninety feet tall.
>
>It's the existence of these "old growth" trees, 
>which give their forests, the pristene look.

I think you are right however I would have say that in the
far east, Japan and china instead of using these large mason
pillars in the middle of large buildings (such as baroque
period cathedrals) the Japanese did actually use the largest
trees they could find as pillars instead of stone, this
would amount to cedars that were well over 100 ft in height.
In fact the buddhist have a habit of growing extremely tall
cedar trees in proximity to thier temples so one has to
wonder if they were planning to use these for later
expansions. 
  There are several issues with regard to boat building that
would shape the dugout issue.
1. Use- Is this going to be an open ocean boat.
2. Proximity to portage
3. Depth of portage 

If you can find a need- open ocean traveling for instance
and you can find a tree close to a body of water and that
body of water is deep enough to support the maximum linear
displacement of water at the center then there is no reason
that they would not have made a dugout several times larger
than the average. However one has to consider the flip-side,
what is going to happen over time, very few trees close to 
deep water portage, much fewer larger trees, very long time
required to get a larger tree. There are not going to be
very many double wide, double long dugouts are there?