the waters of the Virgin's Fountain. The galleries and shafts are cut in the hard, silicious chalk called mezzeh. Within them were found three glass lamps, a glazed dish, and three water jars, and overhanging the main shaft was an iron ring where probably the hoisting apparatus was fastened.

The intermittent character of the stream from the Virgin's Fountain has very naturally suggested the idea that this was the Pool of Bethesda. The stream is ordinarily only 4 inches deep, but rises suddenly several times in a day so as to make a depth of a foot, subsiding again after a few minutes. What is the cause of this is not known, and it is a pity that Captain Warren's endeavor to probe the mystery by tracing the stream north of the Virgin's Fountain proved abortive from the want of means to perform the work under water. We do not know even where the stream rises, whether in the Temple mount or over in the Mount of Olives. Whatever may be the physical cause of the intermission of the water, may we not consider that its attribution to an angel-(Johu v., 4, if we take that passage to be genuine) was not a mere accommodation to a popular notion, but the statement of a profound truth that every physical phenomenon has angelic agency in its higher links of causation?

Capt. Warren's expedition went out in 1867 and spent more than three years in the work. This officer showed great ardor and perseverance in prosecuting his task, which only a lover of antiquarian research could have accomplished. He not only had to contend with the physical difficulties of the engineering task, where rubbish and debris were to be perceived by shafts and galleries, into which it was ready to flow like water by mere jarring, but he was subject to the silly thwartings of Moslem jealousy and suspicion. It was this stupid hostility of the Moslem sentiment that hindered all explorations of any systematic and elaborate sort within the Haram area. This, of course, we are prepared for, when we recollect that it is only a few years ago that a Frank could enter within the sacred precincts; the time must soon come when this ignorant prejudice will give way; and so this annoying obstacle to antiquarian research be removed. Outside of the Haram the principal explorations of the expedition were made at the three corners (N. East, S. East and S. West.) of the area wall. At the N. East corner the Birket Israil, so long considered the pool of Bethesda, has been proved to be a part of the valley that formerly ran from N. W. to S. E., reaching its lowest point (47 feet lower than the bottom of the Pool) on the line of the Eastern wall of the Haram at one-third the distance to the Golden Gate. The Birket Israil has been simply a double dam erected across this valley to hold the rains. At the South East corner of the Haram the substructions of Ophel were found. Ophel and Millo were probably the fortresses that capped the southern extremities of Moriah and Zion respectively (cf. 2 Chron. xxvii, 3; Neh. iii, 26; and 2 Sam. v, 9; 2 Chron. xxxii, 5. The line of wall runs from the South-eastern angle of the Haram South-westwardly and was traced, to the neighborhood of the part of the hill over the Virgin's Fountain, “the tower that lieth out" (Neh. iii, 26) being discovered at the southern extremity of these explorations. At the South-western angle of the Haram the true bed of the Tyropoon was found to be 74 ft. below the spring of Robinson's arch. The last 12 ft. of these 74 represent a great rock-cut canal or gutter through

which the water of the Tyropoon appears to have flowed, filling several circular pools on its way. The lowest portion of the valley originally must have been at a point now covered by the soil that makes the Haram, 90 ft. East of the angle. where the rock surface is 21 ft. deeper than even the bottom of the rock-cut canal, and 84 ft. below the present surface. This canal just touches the South-west angle, and some of its course is interferred with by the present wall, which is one of the arguments to prove that this part of the wall is Herodian. Twenty-two feet below the present surface was found a pavement (probably Herodian) which was used when Robinson's arch was part of the viaduct across the valley from Mo. riah to Zion. Twenty-three feet below this was found another pavement (probably Solomonian) where were seen the remains of other arches, which doubtless were the supports of the causeway by which one of the connections between the two hills was made in Solomon's day. Five hundred feet further up the valley have been discovered the vast vaults which sustained a grander causeway from hill to hill. The road over this causeway is 84 feet above the rock which formed the original bed of the Tyropoon. Capt. Wilson's name is given to the first arch of this causeway in honor of that discoverer. Capt. Warren has enlarged the field of discovery and traced the line of vaults west of the arch. Along the southern line of Haram wall, the substructions of the Haram area have been pierced at the Double Gate (under Aksa), at the Triple Gate, and at the Single Gate, a channel under the latter being surmised to be the blood channel from the Temple. At the Triple Gate, which is half-way between the S. E. angle and the angle at Aksa, the rock surface of Moriah is found at the sill, from which it descends both on the East and on the West. Under the Single gate it is 34 feet below the sill, and at the southeast angle it is 74 feet below the surface, and that again is some 16 feet lower than the sill of the Single Gate. On the West of the Double Gate the rock surface descends less rapidly but regularly until it reaches the original bed of the Tyropoon valley, 85 feet below the present surface, but only 79 feet below the level of the sill of the Single Gate. The S. wall, which rests on (or rather is let in) the rock, is thus seen to be highest at the S. E. angle. The only other portion of the entire wall which is equally high is that which, on the East side, crosses the valley of which the Birket Israil is a portion. This point is a little south of the N. E. angle, where the rock is 47 feet lower than the bottom of the Birket Israil and 130 feet below the present surface.

We have remarked that the wall is set in the original rock of Moriah. One of the most interesting discoveries of Captain Warren was the vermilion marking on the two lowest courses of the wall at the S. E. angle. The lowest course, being set in the rock about 2 feet, rose two feet above the rock. The second course brought the wall 6 feet or more above the rock. The earth had been removed to this depth to reach the rock, when the temple was built, and had been replaced as the wall rose. Hence the courses thus covered preserved the vermilion mark of the quarry, while those above ground speedily lost them. These considerations show that the actual accumulation of soil at this point since the temple was built is from 64 to 68 feet. The quarry marks are (some of them) clearly Phoenician characters,

and testify to the Tyrian co-operation in the construction of the temple. The discovery of the break in the courses of stone on the western side of the Haram supports the theory that the S. W. portion of the wall is Herodian, built to connect the old temple-side (on the present platform of the Mosque of Omar) with the porticos to the south and the Solomonian palace at the S. E. angle.

Moriah itself is shown to be a hog's back of rock running from N. W. to S. E., entering the area at the N. W. angle and leaving it at the Triple Gate. Solomon evidently placed his temple on the rock and built out the hill to the N. E. and S. W. by vaults and filling in. The interior is now known to be honeycombed by vaults, drains, aquaducts, cisterns, canals and secret chambers, into many of which the enterprising English explorers penetrated through abundant hardships and perils. The rock is tertiary limestone, having its upper beds of a very hard stone called by the the Arabs" mezzeh," while the lower, in which most of the subterranean chambers are cut, is a soft white stone called melekeh."

The Recovery of Jerusalem " contains a short report from Capt. Wilson of his explorations around the Sea of Galilee, on which he is inclined to place Capernaum at Tell Hum, and the fountain of Capharnaum (of Josephus) at Et-Tabigah. Here are five fountains, one of which is by far the largest spring in Galilee, the waters of which were lifted by apparatus and conveyed by aqueduct into the plain of Gennesaret a half-mile to the south. This aqueduct is plainly traceable in several places, and especially where it passes around the cliff of Kahn Minyeh by a remarkable excavation in the solid rock. Capt. Wilson confirms Dr. Thomson's view of Khersa as Gergesa and so sustains the reading of Matthew. The volume under our consideration contains several other tracts, to wit: On the Architectural Remains of Palestine, by M. Spiers; On the Haram, by Count de Vogue; On the survey of Palestine, by Lieut. Anderson; On the Pottery and Glass found in the excavations, by the Rev. G. J. Chester; On the Moabite Stone and An Account of Explorations in the Peninsula of Sinai, by the Rev. F. W. Holland. All of these are valuable except the last, which adds nothing to the information furnished by Dr. Robinson thirty years ago. It is rather astonishing that Dean Stanley, in his Introduction to the volume, should laud this essay of Mr. Holland, and that too especially as confirming his (Dean Stanley's) conclusions made in 1856! when Dr. Robinson had announced all but one of these seven enumerated conclusions in 1838! I mention them in detail that my statement may be readily verified: (1.) The spot of the passage of the Red Sea (Robinson, i., 56); (2.) The course of the Israelites by the Wady Useit and the Wady Tayibeh (Rob. i., 72); (3.) The identification of the Wilderness of Sin, with El Murkhah (Rob. 1., 73); (4.) the identification of Ras Sufsafeh and the plain of Rahab with the scene of the giving of the law and the Israelite Encampment (Rob. i., 107-119), (5.) the probable change in the resources of the Wilderness (Rob. i., 54); (6.) the comparatively modern date of the Siniatic inscriptions (Rob. i., 594).

It is of these that Dean Stanley uses such language as this: "All these points, which I had laid down as the nearest approximations which I could make to the truth, have now all been established, etc."

So much has been written on the Moabite Stone that we need not enlarge on this part of the volume. Dr. Ginsburg's monograph is most complete and scholarly, to which all students of the stone can be referred. It is published by the Longmans of London.

One fact that Ginsburg fails to hote, however, is of sufficient interest to record, to wit, that the inscription gives us the name Moab without the Wao, and thus confirms the Bible origin of the name (LXX. Aéyovóa έn Toй πarρós) against the usual interpretations "moba ab" (ingressus patris), "mo(mayim) ab" (i. e. aqua paterna) and Maurer's suggestion from Zaab, which would make Moab "the desirable land."

We see by the inscription that the real name of Moab was a regular compound of

ND, Meab,

(before a guttural) and 2, the Wav being a

provincial or foreign insertion.

That this elaborate inscription of the beginning of the ninth century before Christ, should be the only monument of the old royal period of Israel is not at all likely. The east side of the Jordan ought to be thoroughly explored by wise men, accustomed to Arab life and manners, and this task we rejoice to know will shortly be performed under the auspices of the American Palestine Exploration Society. We believe many treasures await us there, and that even in the honeycombed rock on which Jerusalem is built we may find the sarcophagi of Kings, if not the ark itself.

2. The True Site of Calviry, and Suggestions Relating to the Resurrection. By FISHER HOWE. With a Map of Jerusalem. Randolph & Co. The author of this essay is already well known to those interested in Palestine explorations by his valuable work, entitled Oriental and Sucred Scenes. He there showed himself to be a competent and judicious explorer, interested in the vexed questions about the holy places. He has continued his investigations, with the aid of recent travellers, and gives the results of some of his studies in this valuable treatise on the site of Calvary. He finds this site on the north side of Jerusalem, not far from the Damascus gate, on a slight but marked eminence, surmounting the so-called Grotto of Jeremiah. This point of land, especially as seen from a distance, may be imaged as a skull, kranion. The place of crucifixion is called “the skull." Starting from this hint, Mr. Howe claims that the site agrees with what is asserted or implied in the Gospel narrative in the following particulars: 1. It is without the walls of the city. 2. Yet nigh unto the city. 3. It was popularly known as the kranion. 4. It is nigh one of the thoroughfares. 5. It is eminently conspicuous. 6. It is nigh unto sepulchres and gardens. None of these particulars designate the precise site, but that site must agree with them. The most precise point is the third. There is no evidence that the alleged spot has borne the name of kranion; if it had, the conclusion would be fully warranted.

Mr. Howe also shows in a full and lucid manner (following in the main the positions of Dr. Robinson,) that the traditional site, occupied by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, can not be the real site-for the conclusive reason, that it could not have been outside the walls of the city. Almost all the recent explorations tend to this conclusion; and for ourselves, we think that no one on the spot-considering the whole topography, and, also,

that a wall is for defense-can fail coming to the same conclusion. If the site was not there, where was it? Mr. Ferguson, in his "Topography," etc. argues for the Mosque of Omar. Others put it outside of the present St. Stephen's Gate, to the south, overlooking the valley of the Kidron, and over against the Mount of Olives. This position likewise corresponds with the scriptural hints, it is also near to the scenes of the Trial and Judgment. It could not, however, be the spot, if what Mr. Howe says, p. 49, be fully proved," that the Jaffa Gate has ever been the place of ingress and egress for the south and southwest, as the Damascus Gate has been for the north;"—that is, if this implies that there was not, in the time of Christ, any gate corresponding with the present St. Stephen's. But we know not that this can be shown. Apart from this, Mr. Howe's theory has as much in its favor as any. But it still remains true that the spot can not be said to be fully identified, much as we should prefer to have it otherwise.

ART. IX-RECENT ARABIC AND HEBREW LITERATURE.
By Rev. G. W. SHELDON, New York.

Appendix to Benjamin Anderson's Journey to Musadu: an exact Facsimile of letter from the King of Musadu to the President of Liberia, written in Arabic by a young Mandingo at Musadu, in the latter part of 1868. Printed from Photographic Relief Plates, with a translation by the Rev. Edward W. Blyden, Professor in Liberia College. New York: 1870.

This monograph is published for distribution, chiefly through the Smithsonian Institution. The original covers a page and a half of ordinary foolscap, and though unvoweled is very intelligible, owing to the firmness and size of the letters and the scrupulousness with which the writer has affixed the diacritical points. Mr. H. M. Schiefflin, of New York, to whom the public is indebted for the publication, is the owner of the original MS. Musadu, the capital of the Western Mandingoes, is about two hundred miles N. E. of Monrovia.

The letter, which opens in true oriental style, "In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate. O God, bless our Lord Mohammad and save him!" was written to tell the old story of the distress caused by the invasion of a hostile army, and to appeal for help to the neighboring people of Liberia. Carnage, slavery, hunger, poverty, and "every injury" had visited the inhabitants of Musadu, in the train of the soldiers of King Ibrahima -of whose father the writer has given us one of the tersest of biographies —“ God gave him many children and a large kingdom, and he fought for God, and God killed him, and he died in war." It seems that one day Ibrahima appeared before Musadu with "horses, and a numerous, overwhelming and impudent army," and beguiled the unwary inhabitants into the belief that he had come to help them fight the infidels of the adjacent districts. "Have you not heard," said he, "the saying of the Prophet (God bless him!): I command that you fight men until they say there is no God but God?" And they said, "Yes, we have heard it, and we know it." To complete the deception, he left them for a day or two, and captured and sacked the town of Baghna, a few miles distant. Then having reës