Page:Mount Seir, Sinai and Western Palestine.djvu/173

Rh therefrom during a period of perhaps three thousand years; and in an outer circle round the well are ranged nine large stone troughs for cattle to drink out of. These are supported in position by little piles of stones.

We arrived at Beersheba early in the afternoon of Saturday, and pitched in the vicinity of “Abraham’s Wells”, which, like those of Tel-el-Milh, are sunk a few yards from the river’s brink. The reason for this

is obvious. The well-sinker knew that the chances of a constant supply were greatest in the low ground which borders a river’s bank, and that the water from the river itself would find its way by percolation into the well. Yet are the wells themselves at a sufficient elevation to prevent