320 TREES. 



not like his boughs, nor the chestnut-trees like his branches, nor any 

 tree in the garden of God like unto him in beauty." 



The original forests of this tree upon Mount Lebanon, must have 

 been truly vast, as Solomon's " forty thousand hewers" were em- 

 ployed there in cutting the timber used in building the temple. It 

 is indeed most probable that they never recovered or were renewed 

 afterwards, since modern travellers give accounts of their gradual 

 disappearance. Such, however, is the great age and longevity of 

 this tree, that it is highly credible that the few existing old specimens 

 on Mount Lebanon, are remnants of the ancient forest. Lamurtine, 

 who made a voyage to the Holy Land, and visited these trees in 

 1832, gives the following account of them : 



" We alighted and sat down under a rock to contemplate them. 

 These trees are the most renowned natural monuments in the uni- 

 verse ; 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 intelligence, which 

 causes them to manifest signs of wisdom and foresight, similar 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 and 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 re- 

 cently still only 12 ; there are now but 7. These, however, from 

 their size and general appearance, may be fairly presumed to have 

 existed in biblical times. Around these ancient witnesses of ages 

 long since past, there still remains a grove of yellower cedars, ap- 

 pearing to me to fcf m a group of 400 or 500 trees or shrubs. Every 

 year, in the month of June, the inhabitants of Beschieria, of Eden, of 

 Kanobin, and the other neighboring valleys and villages, clamber up 

 to these cedars, and celebrate mass at their feet. How many pray- 

 ers have resounded under these branches ; and what more beautiful 

 canopy for worship can exist ! " 



The trunks of the largest of these venerable trees measure from 

 30 to 40 feet in circumference. The finest and most numerous 



