14 ORIGINAL AETICLES, 



from the rate of growth of the Chelsea Cedars, the youngest trees 

 may be 22, and the oldest 6 to 800 years old. 



The positions of the oldest trees (of the 400) afforded some 

 interesting data, relative to the ages of the dilierent parts of the 

 grove, and the direction in which it had lately spread. Tlaere 

 were only 15 trees above 15 feet in girth, and these all oc- 

 curred in two of the nine clumps, which t^vo contained 180 

 trees. _ Only two others exceeded 12 feet in girth, and these were 

 found in immediately adjoining clumps, one on one side and one on 

 the other of the above mentioned. There were five clumps containing 

 156 trees, none of which was above 12 feet in girth, and these were 

 all to the westward, (or dowm- valley) side of the others. On this 

 side, therefore, the latest addition to the grove has taken place. 



"Whether the grove has much diminished within the historic 

 period, is a question which can only be decided by a careful collection 

 and scrutiny of the records of old travellers. It would not surprise me, 

 if proofs existed of its not having materially decreased since the days 

 of Solomon ; for it is very doubtful whether the wood was ever largely 

 used in Jerusalem for building purposes. The word Cedar, as used 

 in the Bible, applies to other trees, and only certainly to the Cedrus 

 Libani, when coupled with some distinctive epithet. Tlie foreign 

 timber trade was, in Solomon's time, in the hands of the Phoenicians, 

 and the quantity of first-rate oak and pine, on all the coast ranges 

 from Carmel northwards, was so gi-eat, that it is improbable that the 

 almost inaccessible valleys of the Lebanon should have been ransacked 

 for a wood, that has no particidar quality to recommend it for building 

 pvu'poses. The lower slopes of the Lebanon, also, bordering on the 

 sea, were and are, covered with magnificent forests. So that there 

 was little inducement to ascend 6000 feet, through 20 miles of 

 a rocky moimtain valley, to obtain a material, which covdd not be 

 transported to the coast without the utmost difBcidty and expense. 

 It is further to be remarked, that it is difficult to reconcile the 

 hypothesis of the former great extent of the Cedar forests, Avith the 

 fact of almost the only existing habitat being the moraines of one of 

 the most populous valleys on the mountain. Of movmtain corrys, 

 with the same elevation as that of the Cedars, there are hundi-eds on 

 the Lebanon, some said to be almost inaccessible, and others quite 

 uninhabited ;• had the Cedar ever formed continuous forests on the 

 mountain, from which it had been removed by man, we should certainly 

 expect to find extensive groves in such localities. I desire not to 

 be misunderstood in this matter, for the question is of some scien- 

 tific importance ; I do not doubt that the Cedrus Libani is repeatedly 

 alluded to in the Old Testament, by the Prophets especially, who 

 aptly and uumistakeably designate that tree ; but if, as I believe is 

 allowed by the best Biblical critics and Hebraists, the word Cedar 

 applies in Chronicles, &c., to more than one kind of tree, it is, in my 

 opinion, an open question whether the C. Libani is one of those 

 which supplied most of the timber employed in building Solomon's 



