TREES IN NATURE 115 



as follows of the cedars of Mount Lebanon 

 as they are to-day. After describing the 

 scene from a height of about 7,000 feet up 

 the mountain, he says: "To the right lay a 

 group of what looked like small mountain firs, 

 these we were assured were the cedars; the 

 snow reached close down to them. I shouted 

 to my men to catch my horse, which had 

 wandered in their direction, but he enjoyed 

 his liberty, and on my taking up the chase, 

 led me many devious tracks ere he was 

 secured. A short ride then brought us under 

 the trees, some twelve of them were indeed 

 mightily trunked and limbed. I had lately 

 read that a French savant had calculated, 

 from examination of a transverse section of 

 one of them, that its age was five thousand 

 years. The rest of the trees are so much 

 smaller in girth, that according to this calcula- 

 tion, they would be but a century or two old." 

 Evelyn has an interesting note on these trees. 

 " Josephus tell us," he says, "that the cedar in 

 Judea was first planted there by Solomon, who 

 doubtless tried many rare experiments of this 

 nature ; and none more kingly than that of 

 planting to posterity. I do not speak of those 





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