The cedars of Lebanon may have been great in the past, but they have now almost disappeared. The only ones left are situated about nine or ten hours from Baalbek. The trees grow in the thin soil, which covers the white limestone, the ground being coated with spines, cones, and leaves. Five are very ancient and of great girth, but the tallest is not more than eighty feet high. The largest of all is about fifteen feet thick, so you see they are mere sprouts in comparison with the Big Trees of California and quite small as compared with the giants of Washington and Oregon. The cedars which were taken for the temple at Jerusalem probably came from the region where the old cedars stand, although other parts of the Lebanon Mountains may then have been covered with woods. The logs must have been cut in the forests and carried over the mountains forty or fifty miles to the seacoast. The rafting was done under the direction of King Hiram of Tyre, and the logs were probably towed down to Jaffa, and thence carried up the mountains of Judea to Jerusalem, a distance of about forty miles. The cedars bear cones about as large as a goose egg. The leaves or spines of the cones are solid rather than detached, as those of our cedars at home. The wood is whitish in colour; it is soft, and for building is far inferior to cypress or pine. [Illustration: Of the great cedars of Lebanon which Solomon used in building his temple, only a few are left. The ancient Israelites regarded these trees as the ornaments of the mountains and the types of manly strength and beauty] [Illustration: The plain of Beirut is covered with luxuriant gardens, and tree-lined avenues lead out of the city. Beirut, one of the oldest cities on the Phœnician Coast, is the metropolis of Syria and Lebanon and the seaport of Damascus] CHAPTER XXIX ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS BY RAIL It seems almost sacrilegious to travel by rail over the highways of the Bible. The iron tracks are laid in the pathways of the prophets, and the ghosts of the saints may be roused by the shriek of the locomotives. The modern traveller can cover in a few hours by rail distances that were several days’ journey in the times of our Lord. My first railroad trip in the Holy Land was from the port of Jaffa up the mountains of Judea to the city of Jerusalem. My second was on the Mecca road from the lower end of the Sea of Galilee through the great plains of the Hauran to Damascus over the mountains of Lebanon to Beirut on the Mediterranean Sea. During the latter trip I went from Rayak, in the Valley of Lebanon, between the two ranges of mountains, along the road which has been built northward through the Cœle-Syria to Aleppo.