Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/309

Rh and the distance is very great, and in its middle there is even a rise, the contractor did not make the channel deep enough, and the water could not run. A claim having been made at the Serai, it was ordered that the drain be made deeper, and that the Jews pay more for the work. I had to give my opinion, which was, that the decline must be one in a hundred, which the Russian drain would allow. The parties finally agreed to 0'5 per cent, decline, and even with this, they had, at one point, to go down 12 feet, and at another even 20 feet, blasting the solid rock with gunpowder, and causing great expense. The drain will be made so that a man may walk in it, and will cost about £1,000.

9. Tombs of the Judges, and the neighbouring ground.—Owing to the stoppage of a local bank, these celebrated tombs and the ground round about, in which are many other rock-cut tombs, are to be sold, and I have been commissioned to measure the ground and to find out the size of each of the various pieces, which I have done, and send herewith a copy of my plan on a reduced scale, showing the curious irregular lines of the boundaries of each piece, as, perhaps, this may be interesting to some members of the Fund. It will be seen that there is an ancient road (now no more in use) which certainly once formed also a division, and even now the land south of this road is mulk (private property), that north of it is meri or crown land. To build on the latter, permission must be obtained from Constantinople, whilst for building on the other, which is mulk, permission may be obtained from the local authorities. If, in course of time, new buildings should be erected here, the ancient road must be opened again, as I have shown in the plan with dotted lines. All these various pieces of ground are still called Kerm (vineyard), so it is clear that they were formerly vineyards.

10. Interesting Cisterns and Winepresses.—At the eastern end of the above-mentioned pieces of ground, there is also an old road going from south to north, and passing two cisterns; the southern is an inferior one, of no special interest, but the northern one is rather large, hewn in rock, under a kind of rocky platform, in which are hewn also winepresses. Of these I send plans and sections on a larger scale. The winepresses are like so many others found in the country, cut into the surface of the rock, and remarkable only for their large size. If full, their overflow would run into the cistern. The cistern is 60 feet long and 20 feet wide, and at present about 19 feet deep from the surface, but there is a great accumulation of earth and small stones in it, so that very likely it is from 25 to 30 feet deep. It has at its east end a long recess, also cut in the rock, 3 feet wide and about 10 feet deep (or long), containing very likely a stairway enabling people to go down into the cistern. The roof is rock, in a somewhat arched form, but the greater part flat, and in one place is^ a breakage in the lock, filled up with masonry arching. The cementing is very well preserved.

11. Alterations in the City.—It is well known that a fair or market for animals is held in Jerusalem every week, on Friday, at the open place or square, east of Gate Nebi Daud, inside the city wall. As mischief