Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-08-19
The CedarS of Lebanon,

Prof. Fraas, an eminent German pro-
fessor, in recent book of travels in
Syria and Palestine, gives this interest
ing account of the famous cedars of
Lebanon The grove of cedars stands
on a rocky spur, which has been de-
tached from the foot of peak named
Makmel, and has slipped downward into
Il valley. The subsoil has nothing in
common with the chalk strata presented
by the contiguous sections of the range,
but is rather mass of pulverized dust
rubbed off the summit of the Makmel,
and accumulated at its foot by glaciers
such deposiJ, in fact, as is frequently
met with in Upper Subia and Switzer-
land. The ground is broken into low,
irregular hillocks. divided by shallow
valleys, which form no water courses,
but hold the rain and snow water stag
nant till evaporation has depleted them.
The whole grove of cedars stands on
seven of these small undulations, only
nine trees being stationed, like outposts,
on the extreme edge of the valley. With
these exceptions not cedar far or near,
moreoverin the immediate neighborhood
nor tree or shrub of any kind, nothing
green or olive, in short, till far below il
the Bscharreh valley you come once
more on the cypress and the poplar.
The area occupied by the cedars may
cover 100000 square yards, and by
actual count the trees of this famous
forest number just 377, the numerous
double and treble trunks being reckoned
but once. The youngest of the existing
trees date back for many centuries, and
not few are primeval, or thousands ol
years old. That under which the pro
fessor pitched his tent was twenty eight
feet in diameter at the height of the
breast. Some nine feet above the ground
the trunk split into four stems, which
after springing vertically some twenty
feet further, then diverged and flung
out their huge arms at right angle
The whole height of this colossal tree
which, during hundred generations
has shaded the race of man, now scarcely
exceeds hundred feet, all the tops o.
it's great boughs having been snapped
and rent away ty the storms of centuries
The largest ceder, which stands in the
yard of little Maronite church, has {
circumference of forty-fve feet, bu
there are many whose girth ranges from
thirty three to forty. Prof. Fraas care
fully measured and counted the annua
rings in cedar six feet thick, which hat
been shivered by lightning during the
previous winter. Taking this as basis
he calculated that all the trees abov,
mentioned must be at least 1900 years
old, while the patriarch of the fores
now overshadowing the churchyarC
should date back some twenty centuries
before Christ in other words, hav
witnessed the dawning of the Assyrial
empire, and may have shaded the flock
of Abraham.
The professor states it as fact tina
some of the Oldest trees which Solomon
and Cyrus and Alexander spared hav
been scrawled over with the names o
wretched tourists, deep gashes, some
! times foot in length, having been Gu
with jackknives for the creditable pun
pose. It is fact, too, that not few Q
the finest cedars have been wantonly Sc
on fire. Happily, the wood of Lebano
is regarded by the natives with super
stitious reverence and there is legen
that when Ibrahim Pasha determined
, forty years ago, to fell the grove for
, palace at Cairo. and dispatched foreig
carpenter to the mountain, at the frs
stroke of the sacrilegious Ak the work
mans hand withered at the root.