JJescripiion of Minerals from Palestine. 345 



cedars stand on five or six gentle elevations, and occupy a 

 spot of ground, which I walked aromid in 15 minutes. We 

 measured a number of trees. The largest is upwards of 40 

 feet in circumference.'' Several others they found of nearly 

 equal girth. The height of some of the tallest is 90 f?et. 

 The entire number of cedars, and these are all which are to 

 be seen on the mountains, according to Mr. King, is 321. 

 " They produce a conical fruit, in shape and size, like that 

 of the pine.'' Of this fruit, and also of the chips of the 

 cedar, Mr. Fisk has had he goodness to transmit to me a 

 number of specimens. The cones are about three inches 

 long, and one inch and a half in their transverse diametefj 

 are much more compact than any fruit of a similar kind in 

 New-Eng;land. 



28. " From a wall at the place where it is said that Abra- 

 ham received and entertained the angels. The wall is com- 

 posed of very large stones, some of them 10 feet long, and I 

 think 3 or 4 feet high,- all apparently of the same kind with 

 this sample." This is a very singular substance. It ap- 

 pears to be a kind of calcareous Breccia, in whose composi- 

 tion is infused a small proportion of magnesia. Its exterior 

 surface is pale red, interspersed with spots of gray. It is 

 unctuous to the touch. It is composed, in part, of rounded 

 calcareous pebbles, of different magnitudes, cemented to- 

 gether by lime. Two or three fossils appear in the mass, 

 with which I am unacquainted. Its powder, wlien placed on 

 burning charcoal, phosphoresces, givmg out a very beautiful, 

 yellow light. It dissolves in nitric acid with effervescence. 

 "And the Lord appeared unto \\\m, Abraham,) on the plains 

 of Mamre : and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day, 

 and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood 

 by him, and, when he saw them, he ran to meet thein from 

 the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, and 

 said, my Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass 

 wot away, I pray thee, from thy servant : let a little water 

 I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest your- 

 selves under the tree. " Near Hebron," says Cairaet, 

 "stood the oak, or turpentine tree, under which Abraham 

 received tht three angels." This tree, Solomon affirms, 

 though hardly credible, was standing in the fourth century, 

 highly honoured y pilgrimages and aiinual feasts. 



Not far from this spot, was the •' field," which Abraham 

 boug T of Ephron the Hittite, — (the earliest purchase of 



Vol. IX.— No. 2. 44 



