THE CEDAR OF LEBANON 



the trees are growing 6,200 feet. The whole of this 

 area of Mt. Lebanon is, to quote the article, "a 

 confused mass of ancient moraines which have been 

 deposited by glaciers that, under very different con- 

 ditions of climate, once filled the basin above them 

 and communicated with perpetual snow which then 

 covered the whole summit. The rills from the sur- 

 rounding heights collect to form one stream and the 

 Cedars grow on that portion of the moraine which 

 immediately borders the stream, and nowhere else. 

 They form one group about four hundred yards in 

 diameter with an outstanding tree or two not far 

 from the rest, and appear as a black speck in the 

 great area of the corry and its moraines which con- 

 tain no other arboreous vegetation. The number of 

 trees is about four hundred, and they are disposed in 

 nine groups, corresponding with as many hummocks 

 of the range of moraines. The trees are of various 

 sizes, from about 18 inches to upward of 40 feet in 

 girth; but the most remarkable and significant 

 fact connected with their size and consequently 

 with the age of the grove is that there is no tree of 

 less than 18 inches in girth, that we found no young 

 trees, bushes, nor even seedlings of a second year's 

 growth." Sir Joseph Hooker found only fifteen trees 

 above 1 5 feet in girth and these all grow in two of the 

 nine clumps. He estimated the age of the youngest 



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