CEDARS OF LEBANON. 133 



tops for a great part of the year, or on account of the 

 white colour of the peaks and precipices. 



In this range the backbone, or central ridge, has smooth 

 and naked sides, wholly destitute of verdure, and rugged 

 with knolls and jutting points of rock. The line of culti- 

 vation runs along at a height of about 6000 feet, and below 

 this line the aspect of the western slopes is exceedingly 

 romantic. Precipices and towering crags have been moulded 

 by the elemental wars of centuries into shapes of extra- 

 ordinary boldness and diversity. Rugged ledges are here 

 and there relieved by the fresh verdure of the evergreen 

 oak, or by clumps of tall fresh pines. The patches of soil 

 between these are sedulously tilled, and reward the industry 

 of the labourer with crops of figs, mulberries, and grain ; 

 while the terraces are purple with festoons of vines, and 

 the glens umbrageous with dense groves of olives. The 

 cedars for which the Lebanon was once renowned are now 

 reduced in number : the forest has dwindled to a single 

 group ; a group of between three and four hundred. The 

 traveller who wishes to visit them ascends from the Maronite 

 village of Ehdeu, in the valley of the Kadisha. A wide 

 view opens up the long terraces of the moraines of ancient 

 glaciers descending into the valley. Here, says Dean 

 Stanley, a slip of cultivated land reaches up into the verge 

 of their desolate fields. Behind is a semicircle of Lebanon's 

 highest summits. Just in the centre of the view, in the 

 dip between the moraines and the snow-clad hills behind, 

 is a single dark massive clump ; the sole spot of vegetation 

 that marks the mountain wilderness. This is the Cedar 

 Grove — literally on the very edge of the height of Lebanon ; 



