The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-07-30

than three fees In diameter, have been PROOF
against the light axe OF the Libanese woodman'
In one deHle Of the mountains, however,
three hours journey from the seat OF the Pa
triarch OF Cannobln, and more than o,OOO feet
above the level OF the Mediterranean, stands the
remnant Of mighty forest, renowned through
out antiquity, and still held sacred-the historic
cedars OF Lebanon. To investigate the nature
and condition OF these famous primevti trees
was a main object Of Prof Frsas's expedition.
On the 2ith Of May OF last year our German
traveller left the ruins OF Baalbec, where the
thermometer marked 81 degrees Fahrenheit, and
climbed the mountains as far a. the village of
Ainata, which he reached about shutdown. Not
wlthstandlng the height of the place-nearly
three-quarters OF a mile-above the sea, the
weather, though cool, was not colo, and at four
O'Clock on the following morning Prof. Fraas
took the route to the cedars which lay through
the pass Ell Adib, at that season still buried in
deep snow. Ainata Is abandoned during tho
winter by Its Inhabitants, who had only returned
about fortnight before In order to bring
their sheep To their summer pasturage and plant
barley on the warmer slopes. The pass had been
open only few days. and the caravan traversed
It with tho greatest difficulty, not so much &C.
count OF the steepness Of the road, which was,
however, considerable, as by reason OF the three
the mules sank to their knees at every step. At
seven o'clock they reached the summit of the
pass, and Fraas stopped to take his last view OF
the great eastward slope to the inland plain and
the bills Of Damascus. Before him on the west
ern horizon lay the Mediterranean, with the
whole Phenician coast from rripoli to Dsche-
bail In the middle distance the upland province
Of Bscharrob, aud In the foreground a vast snow
| field broken by one dark spot, apparently at bis
| feet. As he descended the dark spot bro ad ened
until at length It fully revealed itself as the
sacred grove Of Lebanon. Men and beast. were
utterly Frustrated with fatigue, and Fraas or
| dered his tent to be pitched under a gigantic
cedar, which he subsequently ascertained to DO
| 5000 years old. Notwithstanding the great ele-
walton Of the site and the snow which enyironod
the forest, Fahrenhelts Thermometer did not
sink at night below Il degrees, and by day indi-
Gated an equable temperature OF about IS.
The grove Of cedars stands on a rocky spur,
| which has been detached from the foot Of a
| peak named Makme and has slipped dow
ward into valley. The sub soil has nothing In
| common with the chalk strata presented by the
contiguous sections of the range. but IL rather
mass OF pulyerlzed dust rubbed Oh the sum
nit OF the Makmel, and aocum ulated at its foot
| by glaciers-such u deposit, ia fact, as Is fire.
| quentlv met with In Upper Suabia aud in
Switzerland. The ground is broken into low,
irregular hillocks, divided by shallow valleys,
| which form no water courses, but hold the rain
| and snow water stasnant till evaporation has
| depleted them. The whole grove OF cedars
stands on seven Of these small fluctuations,
only nine trees being stationed, like o utposts,
on the extreme edge Of the valley. with these
| executions not a cedar far or near, moreover In
the immediate neigh borhood not tree or shrub
of any kind, nothing green or olive, 10 short, till
| far below In the Bscharreh valley you come once
| more on the cypress and the poplar.
| EThe area occupied by the cedars may cover
| 10000 square yards, and by actual count the
| trees OF this world-famous forest number Just
| 81 the numerous double and treble trunks be-
ing reckoned but once. The Youngest OF the
existing trees date back for many centuries, and
not u few are prmeval, or Thousands OF years
old. That under which our Germ an had pitched
his tent was twenty-eight feet In diameter al th o
height OF the breast Some nine feet above the
| ground the trunk split into four ste ans, which,
after sprinsing vertically some twenty feet
further. then diverged and hune out their huge
| arms at a right angle. The whole height OF this
colossal tree. which, during q hundred genera
lions, has shaded the race OF man, now scarcely
exceeds a hundred feet. all the tops OF its great
| boughs having been snapped and rent away by
| the storms of centuries. The largest cedar,
| which stands in the yard of little Maronite
| Church, has a circumference of forty-1ve feet,
but there are many whose girth ranges from
thirty-three to forty Prof. Fraas carefully meas
ured and counted the annual rings In a ced ar 81 <
feet thick, whicn had been shivered by light
ming during the previous winter. Taking this
as basis, he calculated that all the trees above
mentioned must be at least 1000 years old,
| while the patriarch OF the forest now overshad-
| owing the churcbyard should date back some
| twenty centuries before Christ In other words,
| have witnessed the dawniDg OF tho Assyrian en-
| pire, and may have shaded the hocks Of Abra-
| ham.
| The youngest cedar In the grove has a dame
| ter Of one foot, which represents a growth OF
two hundred years. or saplings oil plants spring
| ing from seed our German traveller could not
nnd trace, and no attributed the absence OF
| these 20 the herds OF goats, which, during sum
| mer, frequent the place. The beautiful, that Ia
| perfect, trees are few IN number and are only
| found In the hollows between the hills. There
| Is one, for instance, on the north rim Of the
| wood which has thus far been unscathed oy the
wind and presents the model OF a cedsr's beauty
as David draws It. II rises TO height OF one
| hundred and thirty feet, its boughs being ranged
evenly about the rounded stem and sym IN etrcal-
! ~ shortened toward the top, giving the foliage
| the shape Of n perfect cone. Such cases, how.
ever are very rare, the peak being commonly
| nicked and the main branches Topped by the
tempests, while OF some twenty cedars the
lightning has stripped the trunk entirely bare.
What man has wasted here Is not to be meas
ured, and what he has failed 10 destroy he ha.
degraded II IL a fact that some OF the Oldest
trees which Solomon and CYRUS and Alexander
| spared have been scrawled over with the names
Of wretched tourists, deep Rashes, sometimes a
| foot In length, having been cut with Jack
| knives for the creditabe purpose. II Is fact
too, that not a few Of the finest cedars have
been wantonly set on Ore. Happily, the wood OF
Lebanon Is regarded by the n tives with super
stitious reverence; and there Ia alegend that
when Ibrahlm Pasha determined, forty years
ago, 10 fell the grove for palace at c iro, aud
despatched aforeign carpenter to the mountain
at the first stroke Of the sacrlegious axe the
workman's hand wlthered at the OF. 1t Is t.
he hoped that such tales will never lose then
terrors, aud that more efficient means may be
found to protect forest which probably In
cludes within Its narrowed circle the Oldest liv
ing things on the surface OF the earth.
"Animai Parasites and Me-smntes."
Certain classes Of animal parasites arc