regards sanctity, and the Mosque second only to Cordova as regards beauty of architecture.

Somewhere, undoubtedly, in this Haram area was the ancient temple of Jehovah, which Solomon built, which Zerubbabel rebuilt, and which, magnificently renewed and adorned by Herod," the Desire of all nations" had filled with glory; but not a stone remains to tell us where; and the controversy as to its exact position has been one of the most hopeless.

Considering how little was had previously for deciding the point, the "Palestine Exploration Fund" has largely increased our store; but we trust the gain is as much, beside, in further investigation being made more feasible by the victory won over Turkish prejudice.

Without entering at all into the vexed question as to whether the Temple courts were conterminous with the Haram-es-Sherif, as some maintain, or were the northern portion or the southern portion of it; or were in the centre, or at the N.W. angle, or at the S. W. angle, all which situations have their advocates, determined in hot fight to maintain the honourable distinction of their client, we purpose, with such lucid brevity as we may attain, to simply state what fresh information has been elicited from "the dust" and "the stones of Jerusalem.

On 15th February, 1867, Captain Warren, with a few assistants, and a store of necessary tools and instruments, arrived at Jaffa. Safely got to land, the boxes containing the theodolites, sextants, &c., were on the point of being confiscated by the custom-house authorities as warlike stores; but their peaceful nature being vouched for by the vice-consul, the party got under weigh, and though their mules were on several occasions blown over by a hurricane which prevailed, they reached Jerusalem without loss, except of time.

A vizierial letter had been sought

from Constantinople authorising the work, and pending its arrival permission was given to dig outside the sanctuary. Obstructions were, however, soon put in their way, the military Pacha asserting that the Haram wall, alongside which they sank their first shaft, would be shaken by their operations. On Captain Warren visiting him, to assure him of the groundlessness of his fears, he vouchsafed full information as to every part of the noble sanctuary, his knowledge being apparently more exact, as it certainly was more wonderful, when it touched upon subterranean matters. The sacred rock, the Sakhra, he stated, lay on the top leaves of a palm-tree, from the roots of which sprang all the rivers of the earth. How needless, when all information was thus freely and accurately supplied, to go digging and poking to seek it so laboriously? and what but injury to the country, if not to mankind at large, could result from an inquisitive Frank meddling with such ingenious waterwork arrangements?

The vizierial letter at length arrived, and ordered all possible facilities to be given for digging and inspecting places, after satisfying the owners; but, unfortunately, added, "with the exception of the Noble Sanctuary, and the various Moslem and Christian shrines." This exception, so worded, was more than sufficient to afford Turkish officials means to carry out the obstructive traditions of their brethren, and practise their fondly-cherished rights of demanding backsheesh.

Captain Warren had recoursed to the following plan to overcome the persistent attempt at hindrance :The Pacha had forbidden any mining within forty feet of the sanctuary wall, thinking, in his innocence, that he thereby effectually secured it against desecrating curiosity. A shaft was sunk manifestly outside of the prescribed bounds. No one could object; the undertaking was strictly

legal, even in the eyes of the effendi. But this shaft, in its doings aboveground and underground, was not consistent, as is too much the way with men and things in general. When well out of sight, it strayed by a long gallery beneath the surface, until at last it reached the massive stones of the Haram wall. Captain Warren's purpose was, after examining, to send the account of his investigation home, and have it published and forwarded to Constantinople; and if further obstructed, to plead that his having been already at the wall with the knowledge of the Porte, had established the custom; and custom rules everything in Turkland. However, sooner than he expected, circumstances afforded him an opportunity, of which he skilfully availed himself, of gaining a respite from his troubles,

In consequence of the over-officiousness of subordinates, the Pacha was forced into a corner, and compelled to withdraw from active opposition.

The workmen had been ordered off by some soldiers; and while Captain Warren was engaged laying a complaint before his Excellency, Serjeant Birtles, his right-hand in everything, was imprisoned. When a cavass came to remove the men, he refused to have them interfered with, and was then arrested himself; and, in spite of his protest, led in triumph to the town-major, who, seeing what an error had been committed, endeavoured to persuade him to depart immediately. This he refused to This he refused to do, though the Pacha himself sent for him, and entreated him to resume his liberty.

Meantime, there was going on a spirited conflict between his Excellency and Captain Warren, who demanded a written declaration that the arrest had been made without his authority. The Pacha tried to shake off his antagonist first by a cold reception, then by browbeating the witnesses brought forward, and

again by the extreme of hospitality; but all to no purpose: he had to yield and promise the letter. Sergeant Birtles, by refusing to go until Captain Warren's arrival, enabled him to win the victory, and by the discomfiture of his highness, to secure non-interruption, for a season a least, from that quarter. Still, however, attempts were made to extract backsheesh, by tampering with the workmen, by complaints that the mining operations interfered with Mahometan tombs, and that the shafts were dangerous to wayfarers. Damages were laid for injury to a house, though it was clearly demonstrated, by an eminent French architect, that the rents were not caused by the excavations; and Captain Warren had much annoyance and difficulty in trying to settle the matter, as even the Pacha threw in his influence in favour of the unjust claim. Extortion and obstruction seem to be the motto of Turkish officials, in the highest as well as the lowest stations. However, firmness and tact won the day for the exploring party, except where restrictions were made by the royal firman.

The work of excavation was one of no ordinary difficulty and danger, as it had to be carried on through the debris accumulated by the many desolations of the ancient city, which had been poured into the surrounding valleys. In some places the soil, impregnated with poisonous matter, made every scratch on the hands turn into a festering sore. Stone clippings, cubical or nearly hemispherical, were found sometimes in layers of twenty feet depth, without a single particle of earth; and this shingle, when touched, would dash like a cataract through the opening, and fill up the galleries so as to render it impossible to proceed. Large blocks, too, from ruined or crumbling walls, were liable, at every stroke of the hammer, to descend and crush the sheeting planks of the shaft. Gunpowder could

only be used when away from all buildings, and then for breaking up masses too heavy for the sledge. The Moslems circulated a strange rumour, to the effect that the exploring party were depositing little balls of gunpowder around the walls of the sanctuary, and that these in process of time would arrive at the dignity of barrels of the same material, and then, by means of some infernal machine, would be used by the perfidious Frank to blow up the building.

Of course such a work as the "Exploration" party carried on at tracted the attention of visitors to Jerusalem, and Captain Warren gallantly testifies that the ladies were undaunted by his deepest shafts, by vaults where rope-ladders were needed, or by holes, through which pushing was the only method of advancement. Visitors there were who saw everything, and yet saw nothing in anything, who, after descending a 100-feet shaft, and while gazing at foundations buried for long ages, and with a history such as none others have, would murmur contemptuously at being dragged so far to see "only an old wall."

"A primrose by the river's brim,
A yellow primrose was to him-

And it was nothing more." The giant stone that has borne the weight of mountain structures, and the heavier weight of centuries, is equalled in some fates with the frail bud of an April morning! Visitors, too, came who would enforce a gratuity on the employés, but refuse a subscription to the Fund. Others, however, repaid the trouble of showing the results of the labour by becoming thoroughly interested in it, and afterwards aiding it by zealous advocacy at home.

We will now mention some particulars of the work. At the western wall of the sanctuary, Captain Wilson, who, in the year 1864, had gone out to make an ordnance survey of Jerusalem, discovered a large arch, the

span of which was forty-two feet, and its width forty-three feet. He considered it to be one of the most perfect and magnificent remains at Jerusalem, and probably of the same age as the wall at the Wailing Place; but from want of the necessary mining apparatus, he was unable to make a thorough investigation. Captain Warren being better provided, accomplished what was impossible for his predecessor, and discovered a series of arches, forming a viaduct across the Tyropean valley.

Here it is that we first come upon the great defect of Captain Warren's otherwise most interesting account, viz., entering into detailed descriptions, which can only weary and bewilder when maps and plans are not supplied. There are through the book constant references to places as shown on the Ordnance Survey, to pencillings sent home, to plans at the Society's rooms, which are only so much aggravation to the perplexed reader. In the account of the vaults at Wilson's Arch, we follow on until

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we don't know where we are,” and grope about as much confused as the explorer would have been had his lights been extinguished, and he left to make his survey in Cimmerian darkness. Vaults, and arches, and doorways, and viaducts, and causeways, are so massed together, that daylight is quite excluded from the narrative; left-hand and right-hand are so magically handled that we know not one from the other; passages leading to east and west, and north and south, twirl you round until the giddy brain cannot tell the points of the compass. We have tried again and again to follow the description, but all to no purpose, until getting into a secret passage we emerge thus with effect:"Having traced it (the secret passage) to a distance of 220 feet from the sanctuary wall, we found a thin wall blocking up the passage; we broke through it, and dropped down about six feet into a continuation of

it, stopped up by a wall to west, but opening by a door to south; through this we crept, and then saw light, and getting through into another chamber to south, we found ourselves in a donkey stable, the owner of which happened to be there, and he, on seeing us grimed with dirt, rushed out, swearing he was followed by gins!"

While the work was going on at Wilson's Arch, it was found advisable to construct a pit, sunk some six feet in one of the dark vaults, to act as a mouse-trap to catch certain meddling effendies, if they persisted in visiting the workmen engaged in clearing out the passages. However, the report of what was prepared for them had such deterring power that the capabilities of the trap were not put to the proof.

Captain Warren does not assign this arch to so early a date as its discoverer, as he only places it in the fifth or sixth century. But the Haram wall, wherever exposed in this excavation, was found evidently to be in situ. There are in it here twenty courses of drafted stones, averaging 3 feet 8 inches to 4 feet in height, and making in all 75 feet 6 inches above the rock. It is probably one of the oldest portions of the sanctuary now existing, and may have formed part of the original enclosurewall of the Temple, in accordance with Jewish tradition.

Robinson's Arch, which is the name given to what seemed to be the remains of an ancient arch projecting from the west wall, not far from the S.W. angle of the sanctuary, has been a subject of controversy as to whether there ever was a further prosecution of the work than now appears. Captain Warren determined to set the matter at rest by excavating in search of the other pier. Beginning some distance from and opposite to the arch, he sank shafts at intervals across the valley, until at 54 feet from the wall he found the object of his search in a

fine drafted stone resting in situ on the rock, and forming part of the western pier of Robinson's Arch. The pier was found to be 51 feet 6 inches long and 12 feet 2 inches thick; two of its courses on the western side, and three on the eastern, remained in situ, the stones being precisely similar to those in the wall at the S.W. angle of the sanctuary. The span of the arch was 41 feet 6 inches.

Stretching from the base of the pier to the sanctuary wall is a pavement, and working along it they found the fallen voussoirs of the viaduct, which crossed the valley by this arch.

A few feet above the pavement, a low passage was found leading direct to the wall. It was full of mud, and could only be cleared out by the men crawling on their knees, and at times the air was so bad that candles would not burn, and they had to work in the dark at the head of the gallery. They were eventually stopped by shingle pouring in without ceasing; but they were repaid for their trouble by having discovered that the Haram wall extends unbroken from the south-west angle up to the Prophet's gate, a distance of about 300 feet. To the height of the pavement it is built of roughfaced stones; the faces of those above it are smooth,

Sinking through this pavement, on which lay the fallen voussoirs of Robinson's Arch, they reached, through 23 feet of debris and old masonry, the rock, and on it found two voussoirs of a more ancient arch, which in their fall had broken in the roof of a rock-cut canal. This canal runs some distance to the south, but following it to the north, they made the very material discovery that it leads to a circular pool hewn in the rock, of which only half can be seen, as it is cut through by the foundations of the sanctuary wall. Evidence was thus obtained of there having been structures more

ancient than the present wall and the viaduct, of which Robinson's Arch is the only remnant visible above ground.

We turn now to the southern wall of the sanctuary:

It is 922 feet in length, and is divided into three nearly equal portions, by the Double or Huldah gate to the west, and the Triple gate to the east. After examination in nine separate places, Captain Warren considers the whole to be in situ, but the western third to be less ancient than the rest. His reasons for assigning a later date to it are the following. We have mentioned the evidence of more ancient structures at Robinson's Arch, and also the character of the wall, the stones composing it being rough-faced beneath and smooth-faced above the pavement. This pavement and similar building in the wall, is found to extend round the south-west corner and all along to the Double gate; while at the south-east angle the wall springs from the rock and has its stones nicely worked from the foundations. There is, also, a very remarkable course of stones, the height of which averages from 5 ft. 10 in. to 6 ft. I in., extending more or less continuously from the south-east angle (where the cornerstone, the largest yet known, weighs 100 tons) to the Double gate, but is not found to west of that point. The largest stone at present known is found at the south-west corner, but its bed is four feet above the great

course.

Further, the walls of the south west angle from the Prophet's Gate on the west, and the Double Gate on the south- that is, for nearly 300 feet on either side-are different in construction from the portions of wall they adjoin, being less carefully built, as well as Leing formed of stones roughly faced up to a certain height, as if they had been sunk underground in debris accumulated over the ruins of more

ancient buildings. ancient buildings.

And lastly, at a

point 90 feet on the south side of this angle, the Haram wall, which is here 85 feet below the surface, and built of stones so marvellously fitted together that the joints are scarcely discernible, cuts through (as the west wall the rock-cut pool mentioned above) the remains of an aqueduct running along the lowest part of the Tyropoan Valley.

In the excavations of the east wall of the sanctuary, letters in red paint, some five inches long, were discovered, apparently quarry marks, and if so, proving that the stones had been dressed before being brought to the ground. Then "marks of King Solomon," excited great interest among the inhabitants and visitors to Jerusalem. The Pacha could not be persuaded to see them himself, but ordered a party of effendis to report upon them.

Captain Warren hearing of the matter, and knowing it would be dangerous to leave such gentlemen to their own will, took care to be at the spot on their arrival, and drew from them an admission that they had come by his Excellency's order. A judicious administration of descents, gradually increasing in length, diminished the number of inspectorsto one, a renegade Greek, who persevered through shame of failing under the ordeal. The last and longest shaft was at the south-east angle, where the basement courses were shown to him as belonging to the Haram wall. He thought it was a jest, and reported that a wall of Solomon had been found in front of, and quite distinct from, the Haram. The paint-marks were also shown him, but being too ordinary-looking characters to have attained such notoriety, he took this as a jest also, and quietly with his thumb deprived a Q of its tail, and transfigured it into a common-place O. Captain Warren, horrified at such Vandalism, tumbled him over, and he, satisfied with his experi