SYLVAN GIANTS. 285 



mountain. " I measured one of the largest of 

 them," says he, " and found it twelve yards six 

 inches in girth, and yet sound, and thirty-seven 

 yards in the spread of its boughs. At about five 

 or six yards from the ground it divided into five 

 limbs, each of which was a massy tree." A later 

 traveller. Van Bgmont, who visited the scenes of 

 Mount Lebanon, seems also to speak of the same 

 trees which Maundrel mentions. He observed 

 them, he says, to be of very different ages. The 

 old standards had low stems, growing like fruit- 

 trees, whereas the younger made a much more 

 stately appearance, not a little resembling Pines. 

 Of the ancient trees he saw only eleven ; those of 

 younger growth far exceeded that number. Some 

 of these old Cedars were four or five fathoms 

 in circumference. Under one of them was 

 erected an altar, where the clergy of Tripoli and 

 the neighbouring convent of Massurki sometimes 

 celebrated mass. From this tree spread five 

 Hmbs, resembling substantial trees, each being 

 about a hundred feet in length, and inserted into 

 the main trunk about fourteen or fifteen feet 

 from the ground. These are noble dimensions, 



