11 



Driiginat ^\[{kU^. 



Ill — 0:s THE Cedaes op Lebanon, TAUErs, Algeria, and India, 

 By J. D. Hooker, M.D., E.E.S. (With Plates I. II. and III.) 



In the Autumn of 1860, Captain Washington, Hydrogi-apher of 

 the Navy, asked me to accompany him to Syria, where he proposed, 

 amongst many other important scientific agenda, that we should 

 examine the Cedar Grrove on Lebanon, of whose history, position and 

 age, nothing was accurately known. It had occurred to him, that 

 although our visit must be far too brief to investigate any part 

 thoroughly, or even to review ail the points worth noting, yet that 

 an examination of the trees on the spot might suggest to us the 

 kinds of observations best worth making by future travellers, and 

 would enable him to judge whether an accurate topographical plan 

 of the valley in which the trees grow, were desirable. He fui-ther 

 oifered to have this executed, if necessary, by the officers of H. M. S. 

 " Eirefly," then surveying the Syrian coast, under the command of 

 Captain Mansell, an officer who unites to the highest professional 

 attainments, a thorough appreciation of the interests of science. 



We arrived at Beyrout on the 25th September, and, thanks to 

 Captain Mansell's arrangements, we were equipped and off on the 

 folloAnng day, accompanied by himself, on a fortnight's journey, 

 taking the Cedars in our way to the summit of Lebanon* (whose 

 height had never been ascertained). On the 29th we reached the 

 Kedisha vaUey, and camped in the evening at its head, tmder the 

 Cedars, at an elevation of 6,172 feet.f We remained two nights 

 there, and from it we twice xiscended the Lebanon, which gave us 

 excellent opportunities of studying the relative position of the 

 grove to the surrounding country, from various heights and positions 

 on the flanks of the enclosing valley, rurthermore, two of our 

 party, the Eev. Gr. Washington and Mr. Hanbury, devoted a day to 

 counting and measuring the trees, and to making a rough ground 

 plan of their positions, which has proved of great use. Captain 

 Mansell also procured a capital section of the lower limb of one of 

 the oldest trees (which lay dead on the ground), and which is very 



* By our obseiTations, calculated from an assumed height of the barometer of 30 

 inches at the level of the sea, it is about 10,200 feet ; according to those quoted by- 

 Van de Velde, it has been supposed to be as low as 9621, and as high as 10,051. 



f By four sets of morning and evening observations, with foui* barometers, and 

 two boiling-point thermometers. Assmning the height of the barometer at the 

 level of the Mediterranean to have been 30 inches, the height of the chapel in the 

 grove is, by Captain Washington's barometer, 6,210 feet; by my own, 6,165 ; by 

 two siphons, 6,176 ; and by boihng-points, 6,138. According to Van de Velde, it 

 is 6,315. The elevation of the summit and of the Cedars will be re-calcuiated when 

 the necessary data for the lower level have been received. 



