CHAP. CXJII. CONl'FER-flE. CE^DRUS. 



up to the very summit of Mount Lebanon ; passing over the snow, which was 

 frozen hard. These mountains are not inhabited higher up than the Carme- 

 lite Convent ; nor all the way down on the east side, which is steep, and a bar- 

 ren soil. I observed the cypresses are the only trees that grow towards the 

 top, which, being nipped by the cold, do not grow spirally, but like small oaks ; 

 and it may be concluded that this tree bears the cold better than any other.'* 

 (Pococke's Description of the East, vol. ii. part i. ; Obs. on Syria, p. 105.) 

 Kinneir, in 1813, found cedars no where but on Mount Lebanon, and their num- 

 ber, he says, amounts to 400 or 500. (Travels in Asia Minor,fyc. y in 1813-14.) 

 In Wolff's Missionary Journal, 1823; and 1824, he states that, on visiting 

 Mount Lebanon, he counted 13 large and ancient cedars, and numerous 

 smaller ones, making in the whole 387 trees. Buckingham, in 1825, says : 

 " Leaving Biskerry on our right, we ascended for an hour over light snow, 

 until we came to the Arz-el Libenien, or the cedars of Lebanon. These 

 trees form a little grove by themselves, as if planted by art, and are seated in 

 a hollow, amid rocky eminences all round them, at the foot of the ridge which 

 forms the highest peak of Lebanon. There are at present, I should think, 

 about 200 in number, all fresh and green. They look, on approaching them^ 

 like a grove of firs; but, on coming nearer, are found to be in general much 

 larger, though the foliage still keeps its resemblance. There are about 20- 

 that are very large; and, among them, several that have trunks from 10ft. 

 to 12ft. in diameter, with branches of a corresponding size, each of them 



2274 



like large trees, extending outwards from the parent stock, and overshadowing 

 a considerable piece of ground." (Travels among the Arab Tribes, p. 475.) 

 The general appearance of these cedars, about the time Buckingham saw 

 them, is represented in fig. 2274. Dr. Pariset visited Mount Lebanon in 

 August, 1829, and has given some account of the cedars in a letter pub- 

 lished in Loiseleur Deslongchamps's Histoire du Cedre. There are not, he 

 says, above a dozen large trees, but there may be from 400 to 500 small 

 ones. Lamartine, who visited the trees in 1832, says: "We alighted 

 and sat down under a rock to contemplate them. These trees are the 

 most renowned natural monuments in the universe: religion, poetry, and 

 history, have all equally celebrated them. The Arabs of all sects entertain 

 a traditional veneration for these trees. They attribute to them not only 

 a vegetative power, which enables them to live eternally, but also an intel- 

 ligence, which causes them to manifest signs of wisdom and foresight, si- 

 milar to those of instinct and reason in man. They are said to understand 

 the changes of seasons ; they stir their vast branches as if they were limbs ; 

 they spread out or contract their boughs, inclining them towards heaven or 

 towards earth, according as the snow prepares to fall or to melt. These trees 

 diminish in every succeeding age. Travellers formerly counted 30 or 40 ; 

 more recently, 17; more recently still, only 12. There are now but 7. 

 These, however, from their size and general appearance, may be fairly pre- 



