bian side of the gulf, eight miles below the town, are some pools which have been dug in the sand, lying now amid palm-trees and gardens. It is probable that water may have been always procur upwards of two miles long, and half a mile broad, and slopes gradually down from the watershed on the north to the foot of Ras Sufsâfeh. About 300 yards from the actual base of the mountain there runs across the plain a low, semi-able here by a little digging; the spot is circular mound, which forms a kind of likely, therefore, to have been the first natural theatre; while further distant, on resting-place of the chosen people after either side of the plain, the slopes of the they had witnessed the signal discomenclosing mountains would afford seats fiture of their enemies, and to have been to an almost unlimited number of specta- that which echoed with their songs of tors. The members of our expedition triumph. It is known as "The Wells of were as unanimous in their conviction that Moses ;" and although the name may the Law was given from Ras Sufsâfeh to have been given long after the flight of the Israelites assembled in the plain of the Israelites, this is proof that inhabitEr-Râhah, as they had been unanimous in ants of the land before our time regarded rejecting Serbal as the Mount of the giv- this as one of their stations. After leaving of the Law." Until some unsuspecting their first encampment on the Arabian ed positive evidence may be presented to coast, the children of Israel, we are told, us, we may therefore rest assured that went three days' journey in the wilderwe know the mountain whose pretensions ness and found no water. Their progress to be Sinai exceed those of any other.-encumbered as they were with women The point has been determined as far as examination of the ground can determine it, and the fancies of travellers can no longer have power to disturb a belief which can be effected by only direct testimony. and children, and old people, and flocks and herds, and spoil-would hardly be more than 12 miles a day; so it seems to tally well with the Scriptural account that the next water to be found south of the Wells of Moses is at a distance, as the Notwithstanding the irresistible claims wayfarer must travel, of about 35 miles of Jebel Musa itself, we should be much therefrom, and that this water is unembarrassed if the few circumstances wholesome and bitter. This place may given in the Pentateuch of the passage be the Marah of Scripture; but it is also of the children of Israel from Rameses possible the wandering host may have to Sinai should prove to be inconsistent left it on their right altogether, and with any practicable route from a culti-passed on to a well on higher ground a vated part of Egypt to Jebel Musa. But few miles further on, to which tradition the surveys and examinations showed points as Marah. Howârah is the modthat an itinerary can be laid down so ern name of the supposed Marah: it is generally agreeable to the Scriptural account that the stations eastward of the sea may all be placed in it. The three days' march in Egypt-first, from Rameses to Succoth, next to Etham, and last to Pi-hahiroth -were in the first place so directed as to take the fugitives past the head of the Gulf of Suez; but, by divine command (Exod. xiv. 2), it turned on the third day to the south, so as to strike the Whatever may have been the angle of inclination, it is clear that the length of one day's journey would not reach very low down the coast: we may therefore fairly assume that the camp from which the miraculous passage of the Red Sea was made was not far south of where the town of Suez now stands.† On the Ara sea. but a small water-hole, yet there are signs of its having been much larger in former days. Hitherto there has been a difficulty about these three day's march through the desert, because, according to the accounts of all travellers who had traversed the ground, nothing in the shape of pasturage was to be found, only some scanty shrubs. But our surveyors, by their more complete examination, have cleared up this matter: by keeping closer to the sea than the more common track, pasture may be found. Elim is the next station named, where there were twelve wells of water and three score and ten palm-trees. The exact site of this Elim cannot be agreed upon; not because a place answering the description cannot be found, but because there are many which would correspond. Water begins to be plentiful about this part of the route, and surrounding some of the water-pools there still are, and surrounding others there may have been, clusters of trees. There 8 is a long valley named Gharundel, in [of ten days; for they proceeded, in the which there are springs which run freely first instance, as rapidly as they could to and fill many pools along its length. The Jebel Musa, where, at the convent of St. water, too, when fresh, is very drinkable. Catherine, they established a depot for We have now to find the Wilderness of their stores. The explorers, however, did The speSin, and this our travellers identify with not take up their quarters in the convent, the plain of El Murkah, a long desert ex- but lived always under canvas. tending some twenty miles by the sea- cial survey of the Jebel Musa region was shore. Here the children of Israel re- the operation first commenced; but the mained some time, and here were first weather became so cold at the end of the received the memorable gifts of manna year that they were compelled to interand quails. Between the southern bor- rupt this survey, and to move to more der of the Wilderness of Sin and the sheltered ground. As they were less explains near the mountain Jebel Musa, posed in the valleys near Jebel Serbal, which, as we have said, is now believed they made the special survey of that to be Sinai, are only four journeys, which mountain and its environs in the depth may have been performed on consecutive of winter, some of the party making exAbout the cursions and carrying on other investigadays, but not necessarily so. route from the desert to Sinai the ex- tions while the survey proceeded. Then plorers are quite agreed; but of two of they went back to Jebel Musa and comthe stations the Scripture gives simply pleted the survey of that part. The rethe names, and there is no use in at- connaissances were effected at convenient tempting to find them exactly. The third opportunities; and the result is, that bestation is one to which the greatest inter-sides the two special surveys above est attaches—namely, Rephidim-where named, seven hundred miles of routeMoses struck the rock and brought forth water, and where the Israelites under the command of Joshua fought their first battle. Close to it must be the hill on which Moses stood to witness the engagement: "And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. And so when Moses' hands were heavy they brought him a stone to sit on, and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands until the going down of the sun, when Amalek was thoroughly discomfited. Now there are two places on the way either of which may have been the scene of these memorable deeds: the explorers are unanimous in supposing that one or other of them is Rephidim, but they are not all in favour of either. When it is remembered that this is the only point of importance on which, after their patient and painstaking investigation, they were not in entire consent, we see how powerfully the survey has dispersed an immense amount of speculation and doubt which till now has been obscuring the evidence of the valleys and hills. survey, showing the course of the principal valleys, were completed, making, with the reconnaissances, a map of more than 4000 square miles of country. After first reaching the convent the party travelled generally on foot, the camels carrying their provisions, implements, and stores. Toils, risks, and privations seem to have fallen to their share in plenty; but they had patience and energy sufficient to cope with all difficulties; their work was faithfully done; and they have presented us with documents of surpassing value. In 1864-65, Captain Wilson and Lieutenant Anderson made a reconnaissance of part of the Holy Land. They began at the northern frontier and surveyed the western highlands of Palestine from Mount Hermon to Jerusalem, taking in as much ground to the right and left of the highest ridge as they conveniently could. There is only one short break in this survey, at a point where, from the ruggedness of the region and the wars of the tribes of Bedouins which were going on at this point_rather hotly, the connection was lost. It is the first map of any portion of the Holy Land that has been constructed from actual survey: it must be largely added to before a complete map can be furnished; but the extension will be far less difficult than the fundamental -oc-survey; and the benefits to science already resulting from what has been done are so great, that there is very little doubt of the survey being completed. Those benefits, of course, are mainly the aid The progress of the Israelites after kept it up so vigorously, crowned it with a signal victory, and obtained from the excursion such complete success that all the captives and goods were brought back again to the cities of the plain. given to students of the sacred writings; | thirty English miles of difficult ground; But there are more than that, for it seems and we see by studying the map what that we are beginning to open up ancient first-rate conduct it must have been that sites and buildings hitherto not known to be recognizable, and we have a glimpse of the geography of a not very remote land, which, independently of its grand associations, we are bound to be acquainted with. A few memoranda of the things already established by the survey will abundantly prove the service that has been done; so we will proceed to state what some of those points and places are, which, although they have for ages been seen by every religious mind, have never till to-day obtained their rightful recognition by geography. desolation unto this day." Bethel and Ai being fixed, there was but little difficulty in finding Shiloh, its relative position being accurately described in the Book of Judges. A little way from Shiloh is a spring which indicates the position of the vineyards where the daughters of Shiloh were dancing when the young men of Benjamin ran upon them and car The same site of the encampment of Abram and Lot is close to Bethel, where Jacob dreamt his well-known dream, → Bethel is but a ruin now; and on the other hand, that is, eastward, of the same site, is "Et Tel," the heap, which our surveyors had no hesitation in identifying as all that remains of Ai. Behind it is the valley where Joshua placed his ambush : The site of the encampment of Abram the plain or ridge down which the men and Lot at the time when their herdmen of Ai were drawn by the feigned retreat quarrelled, consequently the spot on can still be seen; and opposite is the hill which Abram and his nephew came to on which Joshua stood to give the signal the agreement that they would separate, to the men in ambush, who took the place can now be determined very approxi-"and made it an heap for ever, even a mately. It was a hill between Bethel and Hai; and Bethel (now Beitîn) and the heap which once was Ai, have been laid down in the survey. From this hill, as we know, is visible the Dead Sea, which in Abram's day was the vale of Siddim, and the whole plain of Jordan, so that Abram's altar must have stood within a limited area. The survey of the vale of Jordan also enables us to estimate prop-ried them away for wives. It was at Shierly the brilliancy of the exploit which Abram performed in effecting the punishment of the reguli and the rescue of Lot. In this very vale of Siddim it was that the battle took place in which the native princes were beaten; and the invaders with their captives and spoil made off up the valley of the Jordan. Abram armed his retainers, and, with a following of three hundred and eighteen men, started in pursuit. The ground which he traversed can be seen now pretty much as it was in his day; for the deadness of that region for ages, which has caused the obscurity which is now being removed, has, at any rate, prevented much alteration of the natural features. Past Jericho and Gilgal the course leads up to Succoth and the Sea of Galilee, along the whole shore of which (afterwards a region of such celebrity) the pursuit must have been maintained; thence past the waters of Merom (now Lake Huleh) through the territories which were afterwards allotted to Naphtali and Dan, up to the sources of the river, across Mount Hermon, and beyond the boundaries of Canaan to Hobah, which is near Damascus. A smart chase indeed, over at least a hundred and loh that Joshua divided the land, and it was here that the ark rested. The site is marked by a ruin now; "and a curious excavation in the rock in the side of the hill . . . might have been the actual spot where the ark rested, for its custodians would naturally select a place sheltered from the bleak winds that prevail in these highlands." A little north of Shiloh the scene changes, the country becoming broken and rugged, with many and steep ravines; but this is softened down at length, and the intersecting valleys.wind or stretch out in remarkable beauty. One of these sweet little valleys, not more than 100 yards wide, is enclosed by two mountains, each of which rises 1200 feet above the vale. Their bases almost touch, although the summits recede; and in the sides of both are circular indents facing each other, and so forming an amphitheatre capable of containing an immense concourse of people. Here stood, six tribes on one side and six on the other, the children of Israel to hear the words of the law and the blessings and cursings, as Moses had before directed that they should do. The northern mount is Ebal, the southern Gerizim. The vale] North of Dothan is a very rough and is the vale of Shechem, "unrivalled in barbarous country, indeed the country Palestine for beauty and luxuriance." where the survey was slightly interrupted, Shechem, the city of refuge, stood here. We are, of course,, contemplating "the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph," and we know that close to it was a place called Sychar, and that "Jacob's well was there." Jacob's well is there - the veritable well, undisputed in any age or by men of any religion, of which Jacob himself drank, and his children, and his cattle, and from which, in later days, Jacob's divine descendant asked a drink of water from the woman of Samaria. It is close to the high road from Jerusalem to Galilee. About half a mile from the well is Joseph's tomb. More to the north, but still within the territory of Manasseh, a hill named Dotan was found, which the explorers identified with the Dothan where Joseph came to visit his brethren and was so cruelly treated by them. Cisterns hewn in the rock are very numerous there: they are all bottle-shaped, with narrow necks, so that it would be difficult for any one who had been put inside to get out. It has been suggested that one of these was the pit into which Joseph was lowered. as has been mentioned; but a little further yet to the north a clear survey was made of a region which, after the immediate vicinity of the Holy City, is the most interesting, as regards Old Testament history, of all in Palestine. We did not know until we studied this survey, and possibly some of our readers may only now learn, how nearly on the same ground occurred a great many of the events of different periods. From the names of places being different in different books of Scripture, and from the stories being unconnected, one is apt to imagine a wholly different scene for each incident of the narrative. But the map and the account at once rectify any such error as this, as is exemplified in the not very extensive area which we are about to notice-namely, that between Mounts Gilboa and Tabor. This area is the valley of Jezreel, which, westward, leads towards the plain of Esdraelon, a frequent battle-ground. The brook or river Kishon flows across this plain, and on the edge of it is the ancient city of Megiddo, now El-Lejjun. It was along the western border of the flat, under the hills from Megiddo to Taanach, that Sisera's army was extended. Barak with Zebulun and Naphtali occupied Mount Tabor, which lay`north-east from, and in sight of, the Canaanitish army, fourteen miles across the plain. The battle, as we know, took place on the banks of the Kishon. Sisera's army after being beaten received no quarter; and Sisera himself, alighting from his chariot, fled away on his feet. The wretched man made off over the Nazareth hills, across the land of Zebulon, passing the whole length of the Sea of Galilee until he reached the plain of Zaanaim. "Some men," says Lieutenant Anderson, "were set to work to clear out the mouth of the well, which was being rapidly covered up. A chamber had been excavated to the depth of to feet, and in the floor of the chamber was the mouth of the well, like the mouth of a bottle, and just wide enough to admit a man's body. We lowered a candle down the well and found the air perfectly good, and after the usual amount of noise and talking among the workmen and idlers, I was lashed with a good rope round the waist and a loop for my feet, and lowered through the mouth of the well by some trusty Arabs, directed by my friend Mr. Falcher, the Protestant missionary. The sensation was novel and disagreeable. The numerous knots in the rope continued to tighten and creak, and after having passed through the narrow mouth I found myself suspended in a cylindrical chamber, in shape and proportion not unlike that of the barrel of a gun. The twisting of the rope caused me to revolve as I was being lowered, which produced giddiness, and there was the additional unpleasantness of vibrating from side to side, and touching the sides of the well. I suddenly heard the people from the top shouting to tell me that I had reached the bottom, so when I begun to move I found myself lying on my back at the bottom of the well; looking up at the mouth the opening seemed like a star. It was fortunate that I had been securely lashed to the rope, as I had fainted during the operation of lowering. The well is 75 feet deep, 7 feet 6 inches diameter, and is lined throughout with rough masonry, as it is dug in alluvial soil. The bottom of the well was perfectly dry at this time of the year (the month of May) and covered with loose stones. There was a little pitcher lying at the bottom unbroken, and this was an evidence of there being water in the well at some seasons, as the pitcher would have been broken had it fallen upon the stones. It is probable the explorers found a beautiful spring, that the well was very much deeper in ancient times, for which they do not doubt is the water in ten years it had decreased ten feet in depth. Every one visiting the well throws stones down for the satisfac- where Gideon tested his forces by their tion of hearing them strike the bottom, and in this way, modes of drinking, and selected his three the well during the fourth century, it has become filled hundred, all of whom had lapped the up to probably more than a half of its original depth." water with their hands. Again, it was as well as from the debris of the ruined church built over We do not know how long he was in getting there, but we now see that Jael's tent, which was at Kedesh, was forty miles from the battle-field, and over that distance at least of hill and dale he must have hurried to his miserable death. In the valley of Jezreel, too, was it that the Midianites and Amalekites were spreading terror when Gideon was commissioned to arrest their progress. Close behind Jezreel, and under Mount Gilboa, > south of Libanus and Anti-Libanus, crossed the Upper Jordan, and had its northern terminus at Cæsarea Philippi, now the village of Banias. A point on the Jordan-i.e., the confluence with a united stream rising at the two points Banias and Tel-el-Kadi - was geographically established. The Jordan, just above this point, is 45 feet broad, is of a dirtyyellow colour, and flows between banks 25 feet below the general level of the plain. Below the confluence the stream is 90 feet broad. For some way it flows through a deep gorge, but at last it issues suddenly on the plain at a very low level. “Its very waters seem to flow suspiciously, as if they were going on a fruitless journey, never to reach the sea." Below Lake Merom it flows once more in a narrow channel with precipitous banks; but it is already as low as the sea-level, and, of course, by the time it has passed through the Sea of Galilee it is below the level of the Mediterranean. Then "the river rushes on boisterously; but it is too late to accomplish the great object of all other rivers, for its waters are now 600 feet below the level of the ocean." Just below Jericho it falls into the Dead Sea. Before leaving this general survey we may quote the account of a little adventure of the surveying officers: here that the ark of God, which had been who find a market for their goods at Da- ran. sheikh of the village complained that a taxWhile we were encamped at Jezreel, the gatherer from the neighbouring town of Jenin had just paid them a visit, and had flogged our water-carrier because the latter would not wait A little to the north-west of Mount Ta- upon him. The chief desired Captain Wilson bor lies the town of Nazareth, completely to make a report to the governor at Jenin, and surrounded by rugged and barren hills. our dragoman was accordingly directed to write It is a lovely little spot, the more so by a letter in Arabic and submit it for signature. contrast with the rough ground around. The dragoman's interpretation of his own letter was as follows: "To the governor of Jenin. Having reached this point, it be exmay The chief of the village of Jezreel, what you pected that we turn aside and notice what send one policeman he come speak bad words has been done in exploring the shores of and beat near to kill him one man what fetch the Sea of Galilee; but that we propose de water for one English Colonel. I come for to do further on, after we have reviewed see you presently." This was duly signed by the survey of Jerusalem. The reconnais- Captain Wilson; and as the chief insisted upon sance which we are at present considering, a seal being appended to the signature, an old kept to the line of watershed between monogram was cut off a sheet of note-paper This was supposed to Jordan and the Mediterranean as its main and affixed to the letter. direction. As we pass north of Nazareth prove the genuineness of the document, as a the points away from the river and lake man's seal cannot be forged. become less interesting, although it would appear that there are many curious remains in this little-known region. Kedesh, the city of refuge, is recognizable, as is also Laish. The hills of Naphtali are still well covered with oaks, but these are being thinned by charcoal-burners, It is now time to speak of the operations at Jerusalem, which were the earliest, and which led to the other explorations of which mention has been made. Many will learn with surprise that up to the year 1864 no wholly reliable map or plan of the Holy City existed; which does |