Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/308

264 the aqueduct 1 feet deep brings it also to 2,529. The B. M. on the Sheikh's Tomb is 2,534 feet 4 inches, hence the bottom of the aqueduct is 13 feet 4 inches lower, just as I have found by the levelling.

I am sorry they are filling up with masonry this newly-discovered piece of aqueduct in order to put the boundary wall partly upon it, and so this part will disappear. I will see that the mason makes a mark on the new wall, to show in future where the continuation may be looked for, and perhaps cleared out.

6. Of the Muristan Inscription, of which I recently sent a copy to you, I may say that at the same time I also sent a copy to Dr. Euting in Strassburg, who writes me as follows about it:—"I think I can read it correctly. It is a Hexameter, but not a good one. The cross at the beginning has to be read as F, and so it runs: i.e., 'Fame goes round the parts of this round earth circling.'"

7. A Rock Scarp.—West and north-west of the place of the mosaic houses have been built, and boundary walls made. When recently passing, I observed a high rock scarp laid bare for a short distance and forming an angle, looking as if it had been a ditch; the workpeople said it had been a bir (cistern), but I could not detect any marks of former cementing. As the bottom was not yet reached, I cannot tell the depth of the scarp, but it is apparently above 12 feet. I have entered this scarp, and also some of the several new houses, on the plan. What is marked with the word "old" is a bit of old masonry, rising a little above the surface and marked in the Ordnance Survey Plan. The scarp was very probably connected with it, but not with the line given as "old foundations," which have since been removed. In this neighbourhood was also found the large lintel, respecting which I reported about a year ago. So that I think if the "third wall" did not pass here, as some have suggested, at least there once stood here a large and important fortified building. The egg-shaped cistern cut into the rock, which was found some years ago, would have belonged to it. One cannot say much that is positive about it, and I wish only to give the various details as they come to light; what they may have been is simply guess.

8. New Drains.—A few years ago the Russians made, under the inspection of the local authorities, a new drain from all the buildings on their property west of the city, by which all used water and dirty fluid was conducted down into the city drain, and so down to Siloah. In the accompanying plan I have shown in blue the line thereof with all is branches. It enters the city about 150 feet west of the Damascus Gate. In the course of the last 20 years several colonies or settlements of Jews have been built north-west of the city, and as no sewers were provided, the retention of the dirty water has made the settlements more and more unhealthy. The leaders of the settlements, therefore, resolved to make a drain, leading into the Russian one. The local authorities gave permission, and it was constructed for £500. But, as there is from the starting point in the west (more west than the plan shows) only a small decline,