| Show BMW I 1 j g law lima lim A W k I 1 I 1 IFT I 1 HE cedar forests which ft 11 t U once mic clothel 11 the aca word ward slopes of the by 1 ia rean nan highlands were the cju glory of leh lebanon no but I 1 y r t the he rear remnant cent of thus those y primeval forests which supplied timber tor for babylonian temples and we were a table possession of md hiram the ph phoenician bew king or are only a sad and r reminder daimler ot 1 ft a glory that has de p arted led the cedars have lost their claim to be be the pride ot of lebanon barren gran d deur and ad act beauty of color are 1 in these dis das the leading leading characteristics les ot of these delightful del g hatful mountains for naked root rod and d beteille scree acres now dow reign where he a once dark forests thrived et sufficient remains to show what ehat let leb anon must have been in the old days day a mockery no doubt of their ancient deal splendor tender but on an the ilia other land hand an 11 interesting relic mile and a valuable as 1 her h all tags tage living trees such each as these which their most at sanguine gains desm claim to have been contemporary with solomon must be reckoned as one ot of reckoned the historic treasures 0 ot ilia world not net only does their fame re rest t upon pon tra traditional d grounds their beauty of form and pow power r of growth 1 hava il 1 been alln extolled to lit in D pen psalm and verse ore b by y the battle bards of inan many lands land wh while la their theia r shad had ow bwy groves in still earl earlier at davs dars were theyon the object I 1 eat of veneration th the primitive nature worship worshippers wor shippers era ip could not net have chosen a finer ideal ai than this giant tre tree perfect in every moment of its existence an emblem of beauty strength and vitality I 1 it t Is 11 easy a to milem understand tol the admira B alon that the cedars cedar evoked in their native land to T the inhabitants of the otherwise barren lebanon to the wan dere derors r 8 in the deserts b belond 0 oil and even to the h dwellers del let in tho the hill country of palestine these trees must have he been be miracles of creation these people of toreather only anew kne the h delicate palm the gnarled olive live and stunted blunted scrub club oah it cp c compared P at ad with I 1 these base tho the gigantic bo bole le and spreading arms of the lordly ce cedar d or were indeed a mystery in any land ad it is a true tree that attracts atten be alon but in such a naked treeless country as a syria and palestine lee it is a especially alfi appreciated small wonder that it bacan the tr trpe of th the lord L rd and a symbol of power the eastern mind could coul it find no better belle r file fi for expressing greatness grandeur ex ballence cell cal lence e nee of character or ifal If loftiness tl of purpose the might of the assar a carld empire was sea likened to the cedar in we words ads too wonderful to be left un on quoted bob D id the ali A assyrian li was van a cedar in I 1 shanon with fair air branches and with a shadowing shroud broad and of an hl high gh statute stature and his top was among the thick boughs the waters wide him great therefore he his height was exalted above all the trees of the field and his boughs bough were war multiplied and his branches became in long because of the multitude of fatels when he be shot forth all the fowls of heaven made their nesta 0 cat in ills his boughs bough and under his branches did all the beasts b ts of the field bring forth their young and under his hia edw dwelt dealt all 11 great lattice thus was he fair 1 in his greatness in the me length of his branches tor for liia his root was by great the cedars in the tha g garden ddn of god c euld could not act hid hide nw him the fir trees wore were out not like his boughs bough and the ch chestnut sant trees were not like his branches nor any tre tree in the garden of god was like h him ho 1 an fn his b nty I 1 have made him fair by the ill tude of his branches so o that all the tha 0 t trees r of U eden that w t wera war in the garden lucov 0 of god envied ed bi him no again the success of the good man I 1 e zt Is guaranteed by the promise that he shall ahall grow like a cedar in lebanon and when he the earth Is shrouded in misfortune and tragedy the metaphor used Is 1 labno lebanon Lb no is ashamed and hewn down but the cedar has fallen on bad de das it he haa not t site escaped evoil the cut curse that be haa settled on to those fair lands landa the blight ot it desiccation the ravages of unthinking and unworthy guardians guardi ins ill the rocket canker ot of a stagnant government have all it done their share hare in the do da tio of what was waa once the glory of an historic laud land in the days daya of lore ore the cedars were not of carefully fully guarded relies relics but actu ally formed the source of a lucrative timber bell business A aa long ago go as 2450 B C we knew that the contractors contractor ot of the babylonian babiloni king brought cedars cedar irom from the arnern aganus mountains in north ern am aria to the euphrates whence they floated them down to their des del tharion even as itte his as aa 1000 B C they boy must most have been very plentiful for solomon raised a levy a 0 SO too aliens in the land of israel for the sole sell purpose of kneeing hen ing timber in leb lab anon th tha a 11 I 1 no doubt gradually its de creased as the I 1 population increased and the rainfall diminished th the un on controlled deini action of the forests went a on without interruption so a that in n the tha a of regeneration their doom was sealed denied N hat is left of the former glory of lebanon 1 Is but a few isolated and comparatively hil cint groves in point of tact fact there are today live five distinct groups of ce airs but bet the most moat famous of these does not possess above trees all told and of these there 1 as a very mail email proportion ot of rial r al patriarchs the actual distribution of this cedar Is not limited to the lebanon it also exists on the amande mount tins this in northern syria and on the taurus range in asia minor alaor while iule cedrul libana alibani Is really only a local form of a large family which ath thrives in the himalaya as the deodar dejdar and 4 in north africa as the algerian cedar As AB a matter of fact the jtb anon orders codara do not lear bear comparison when brought into t con entrant with oth in ers era of their kind but the romance of their environment and their historical interest envelop the tha remains remain of king I vii vi hiram a forests with a glamour u ot of their own here in their ancient he home th the residue residua of those forests which one once darkened the heaward ward slopes of love int ly lebanon 8 still ill hold their own maea aided ded by the timely P protection granted I 1 them hem by european ym at t an attitude altitude of about feet above the sea bea in sheltered amphitheaters mp 11 ll I 1 th tre sur or rounded by naked ridges and imposing crags age nestle festl I 1 the he five erem remaining g g groups of cedars cedar no none of them la more r than fifteen mile from the coast cenat in ia a dl met line tho the best belt known grove grova and ad that which contains contain the oldest 1 1 t trees iree is situated at the tha head ot t the a valley silly a little to the south of the cut cul pea peak of the lab lebanon it 1 Is a day days rids ida inland from the per port t of tripoli in the neighborhood I 1 ia comparatively new a w groe grm which we was started and arese prese preserved arted bya by a local MR me limits bishop these are a a standing lending proof of what can be do dune 1 in the we way Y of th the other th three me groups are in the sout southern harn leaa lebanon on and ad or are more or easily approached from beirut or better still by way ot of ill the station let of ain sofa safe on the damasus damascus railway these three are all close to gether bethar but are distinguished by le the names amet of the ills villages go to which e h I 1 they he belong namely at aln phalta alta mansir old and bruk baruk of in these the baruk grove is the best known and nd new moat at fa fre quew I 1 y visited visited it Is also so the largest group of f a all i fi five the goldst bt alices though are to be found I 1 n the north ern or are crova this locality Is known as the jebel aebel el at arz are a or cedar mountain the grove of ned ced its ira being situated does alosa under a 9 y idge of barren limestone here the solitary are bet act in a lit life less silent afloat world of rock tk and ad acree ee where no other vegetation exists shown off to perfection by a back groaned Ero unil of f drifted snow w and ad naked asked boulder bowlder in winter and of utterly be bar ren ran bleached flanks I 1 in summer nummer seen from a distance df stanco they appear as aa a lit tie its black dot in the imposing amphy theater of hil hills but on tatul tance they pro prove to bo spread to out in it to several scattered clumps covering ill the hummocks of on an ancient me |
