132 TREE-PLANTING. 



mountaineers in their vivid dresses, and the sombre 

 priests assembled round the fire, and the horses 

 feeding in the background. 



" Gradually the chattering ceased ; one by one 

 the inhabitants retired to their distant village ; the 

 salaams died away, and I was left alone, but for the 

 sleeping servants. All was in fine harmony to sight 

 and sound around me ; all nature seemed in pro- 

 foundest rest, yet palpitating with a quiet pleasure : 

 the stars thrilled with intense lustre in the azure sky ; 

 the watch-fire now and then gleamed through the 

 heavy foliage its fragrance, for it was of cedar wood, 

 stole gratefully over the tranced senses 



And not a breath crept through the rosy air, 



And yet the forest leaves seemed stirred with prayer. 



"The next morning before sunrise I broke up 

 my encampment with regret These are the most 

 interesting trees in the world, except perhaps those 

 of Gethsemane ; they were the favourite metaphor of 

 the ' sweet singers of Israel, and of the prophets,' and 

 thus it comes that these few trees standing on this 

 lonely and distant mountain are known all over the 

 world." 



The different accounts given by travellers as to 

 the number of the old cedar trees now standing is 

 very perplexing. In the case of the earliest travellers 

 this is not surprising, for obvious reasons, but it is 

 very much so in the case of recent visitors to Mount 

 Lebanon. Thus Lamartine, who visited the cedars 

 in 1832, says there were only seven at that time, while 

 M. Laura, an officer of the French navy, who visited 

 the mountain in company with the Prince de Joinville 



