122 THECEDAR OF LEBANON. 



tants. But they are gradually diminishing in num- 

 bers, and almost every few years witnesses the 

 removal of one or more of these interesting relics, 

 which yield to decay that strength which has defied 

 the blasts of ages. 



Of those whose appearance warrants the belief 

 that they are the very Cedars under whose shade the 

 Patriarchs of old have rested, in 1550 there remained 

 about 28, in 1745 there were but 15. Twelve were 

 recently counted by a traveller (Lord Lindsay), who, 

 speaking of them, remarks, that he and his com- 

 panions halted under one of the largest of them, 

 inscribed on one side with the name of Lamartine. 

 The grove was composed of trees of various ages 

 growing together ; " One of them," he says, " by no 

 means the largest, measured 19 \ feet in circumfer- 

 ence, and in repeated instances, .two, three, or four 

 large trunks spring from a single root. Of the giants 

 there are several standing very near each other, all 

 on the same hill; three more a little further on, 

 nearly in a line with them ; and in a second walk of 

 discovery, I had the pleasure of detecting two others, 

 low down on the northern edge of the grove. Lamar- 

 tine's tree is 49 feet in circumference; and the 

 largest of my two on the southern slope is 63 feet, 

 following the irregularities of the bark." 



This Cedar grows not only on the mountains of 

 Lebanon, but also on Mounts Amanus and Taurus, 

 in Asia Minor, in some parts of Africa, and on the 

 islands of Cyprus and Crete. It loves cold and 



