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basin or collection of water, is variously called the "sea," "great reservoir," or "royal cistern" of the temple. Of its great antiquity there can be no doubt. Dr Barclay did not succeed in discovering the entrance of the aqueduct from Solomon's Pools, which he had been told enters it from the west. Pierotti, in his map of the Haram, indicates, but, so far as appears, without any authority, a connection between the two.

Lieut. Warren has discovered, to the east of the mosque of El Aksa, three tanks of large dimensions, the bottom of which is upwards of 60 feet below the exterior surface of the ground, containing a superficial area of 4,400 square feet, and computed to be capable of holding 700,000 gallons of water.

The number of well-mouths with which the Haram area is studded, seems to indicate that the rock beneath is honeycombed with tanks or reservoirs.

According to Kadi Mejr Eddin, the Moslem historian, there were 34 of these wells or reservoirs in the Haram yard, three and a half centuries ago; and seven were beneath the great central platform. That to which he gives most prominence, and which appears to have been situated near to the entrance to the Cotton Bazaar (the Bab-el-Katannin), was the "well of the leaf." Dr Barclay counted 32 well-mouths; but he states that the larger wells have each several mouths, and that some of the reservoirs are now disused and filled with rubbish.

There have been many theories broached respecting the remarkable well, near the Haram, which supplies the 66 bath of healing," called Hummàm es-shefa. The depth of this well beneath the surface of the ground, is not less than sixty-six feet. Its shaft is connected underneath with curiously built chambers and rock-hewn caves and passages, which have been explored as far as 105 feet south from the well, and which are said to extend twice as far. It has usually been supposed that this singular well is fed from a large fountain, within the precincts of the Haram; but this supposition is not countenanced by the fact that the subterannean channel along which the water flows, instead of coming from the east, in the direction of the Haram, approaches the well from the south. The accounts which Wolcott and Barclay have given of their descent into these mysterious recesses, however well fitted to gratify the love of the marvellous, throw no light on the questions, Does this well depend on some deep and ancient aqueduct? and has it any connection with the Virgin's fount?

Looking at the nature of the ground to the west of Jerusalem, and taking in connection with the statements of Scripture (as in 2 Kings xviii. 17; xx. 20; 2 Chron. xxxii. 30; Isa. vii. 3; Xxxvi. 2), certain references of the son of Sirach and Josephus, Dr Robinson concluded that there must have existed anciently

a fountain Gihon, somewhere in the locality of the Birket el Mamilla, the present upper pool of Gihon. The Gihon, “whose upper water course," or the upper outflow of whose waters "was stopped" or covered over "by king Hezekiah," must clearly have been situated in this quarter; for it was brought down to "the west side of the city of David." Hezekiah's object was to secure these waters for the inhabitants in case of a siege, and cut them off from the besiegers. This he could do by digging a deep reservoir, and erecting over it one or more subterranean chambers, as we know was done with one of the fountains which supply Solomon's pools. From this it could be brought by underground channels into the city, and distributed among various reservoirs and fountains. It seems every way probable that this was done; and that the pool of Hezekiah, still existing, whose great antiquity is undoubted, was one of these pools. The aqueduct which, as Josephus states, conveyed water to the tower of Hippicus, and to Herod's palace on Mount Zion, both in the near vicinity of Hezekiah's pool, may have been supplied from the same source. The pool is in fact now fed from the upper Gihon basin. While concluding, on a view of the whole evidence, that the modern pool is to be held to be the representative of the ancient fountain, as indicating at least its locality, the author of the "Researches" admits, that before perfect certainty could be arrived at, excavation in this neighbourhood would be necessary. These views were strikingly corroborated by the discovery, at a later period, of an "immense conduit" beneath the surface of the ground, near the tower of Hippicus, when a foundation was being dug for the Anglican Church, which is believed to stand on a portion of the ancient site of the royal palace of Herod. Mr Johns, the architect, states that, in sinking a shaft, the workmen at the depth of more than 20 feet, came on the roof of a vaulted chamber, of a very superior description of masonry, within which there were steps leading towards a solid mass of stonework laid in courses. On carefully removing one of the stones, he found "an immense conduit, partly hewn out of the solid rock, and when this was not the case, solidly built in even courses, and cemented on the face with a hard coating of cement, covered over with large stones, retaining still a surface such as is rarely found in modern erections."* The direction of this aqueduct was east and west. It was nearly level. purpose was obviously the supply of the inhabitants with water, there being several apertures at distant intervals; so that by means of a line and bucket, water could at any time be procured. Here, then, in all probability is the aqueduct

* "Bartlett's Walks around Jerusalem," p. 83.

Its

The Virgin's Fount.

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which we know from Josephus, anciently supplied the tower of Hippicus and the royal palace on Zion. Nor is it an improbable supposition that has been entertained by Robinson and others, that the waters of that fountain which Hezekiah covered, may still continue to flow, by deep subterranean channels down to the temple area, supplying the deep wells near the Haram connected with the Hummâm es-shefa.

The identity of the fountain and pool of Siloam with the Siloam of Isaiah, Nehemiah, and the Evangelists, is unquestionable. Josephus, who makes frequent mention of Siloam as a fountain, says expressly that the valley of the Tyropoon extended down to it; in other words, that it was situated in the mouth of the Tyropoon, where it is found now. The later historical notices of it, and they are numerous, from Jerome downwards, go to establish this identity very satisfactorily.

It is equally clear that Dr Robinson is right, when he identifies the fountain of the virgin, on the west side of the valley of Jehoshaphat, with the "king's pool" of Nehemiah, and the "pool of Solomon" mentioned by Josephus, near which the wall of the city passed as it ran northwards from Siloam along the valley of Jehoshaphat, to the eastern side of the temple. The irregular flow of the waters at both these fountains is as yet an unsolved mystery. Dr Barclay, who speaks of the spring at the virgin's fountain as "rushing furiously like a mountain torrent for twenty or thirty minutes, then intermitting for one or two hours, or, in dry seasons, even a day or two," confidently assigns as the cause of this remarkable phenomenon, the natural action of a siphon-shaped reservoir in the heart of the mountain. But this is an utterly unsupported hypothesis. The fact of the intermittent flow at both places is explained by the connection of the two through the subterranean passage or canal cut out in the solid rock. Of this canal not a few explorations have been made since the commencement of the 17th century, when it appears from Quaresmius, that one Pater Julius passed through it. Yet, so recently as 1839, the question was still undecided, though very easy, surely, of settlement, whether the water flows from the virgin's fountain to Siloam, or vice versa. The successful attempts of Drs Robinson and Smith to traverse this underground aqueduct, which set the question at rest, is one of the most graphically told of their adventures, and quite relieves the grave and learned pages of the "Researches." Entering at the Siloam end, they found the rock-hewn channel about two feet wide, the water for the most part not more than 3 or 4 inches deep, with hardly a perceptible current; the height of the

passage from 15 to 20 feet for some distance, but becoming gradually lower and lower, till, at the distance of 800 feet, it became so low that they could not advance without crawling on all fours, and bringing their bodies close to the water. As they were not prepared for this, they resolved to beat a retreat; and try again at a future time, from the other end. Accordingly, marking the spot, they returned with their clothes wet and soiled. Having found that the distance above ground between the two fountains was 1100 feet, they concluded there could not remain over three or four hundred feet to be explored. In this calculation, they found afterwards that they made too little allowance for the numerous windings of the passage. They found it much lower at this end than at the other. Most of the way they could advance on their hands and knees, but in several places they could only get forward by lying at full length, and dragging themselves along on their elbows. From the many turns and zigzags, the way seemed interminably long. But at length, after having measured 950 feet, they arrived at their former mark of 800 feet, thus making the entire length of the canal, assuming the measurement to be correct, 1750 feet, or several hundred feet greater than the direct distance outside.

Lieut. Warren, who also explored this channel, confirms, in his narrative, the statement of Dr Robinson in every particular. He says::

"We entered from the Siloam end, so as to have as much clean work as possible. For the first 350 feet it was very plain sailing : the height of the passage sloping down from 16 feet at entrance to 4 feet 4 inches, the width 2 feet; the direction, a wavy line to the east. At 450 feet the height of the passage was reduced to 3 feet 9 inches, and here we found a shaft leading upwards apparently to the open air. This might be made use of to great advantage by the owners of the soil overhead. From this shaft the passage takes a N.E. direction, and at 600 feet is only 2 feet 6 inches high. Our difficulties now commenced. Sergeant Birtles, with a fellah, went ahead, measuring with tape, while I followed with compass and field-book. The bottom is a soft silt, with a calcareous crust at top, strong enough to bear the human weight, except in a few places where it lets one in with a flop. Our measurements of height were taken from the top of this crust, as it now forms the bottom of the aqueduct; the mud silt is from 15 inches to 18 inches deep. We were now crawling all fours, and thought we were getting on very pleasantly, the water being only 4 inches deep, and we were not wet higher than our hips. Presently bits of cabbage-stalks came floating by, and we suddenly awoke to the fact that the waters were rising. The Virgin's Fount is used as a sort of scullery to the Silwan village, the refuse thrown there be ng carried off down the passage each time the water rises. The rising of the waters had not been anticipated, as they had risen only two hours

Passage between Virgin's Fount and Silvam. 317

previous to our entrance. At 850 feet the height of the channel was reduced to 1 foot 10 inches, and here our troubles began. The water was running with great violence, one foot in height, and we, crawling full length, were up to our necks in it.

"I was particularly embarassed; one hand necessarily wet and dirty, the other holding a pencil, compass, and field-book, the candle for the most part in my mouth. Another 50 feet brought us to a place where we had regularly to run the gauntlet of the waves. The passage being only 1 foot 4 inches high, we had just 4 inches breathing space, and had some difficulty in twisting our necks round properly. When observing, my mouth was under water. At 900 feet we came upon two false cuttings, one on each side of the aqueduct. They go in for about two feet each. I could not discover any appearance of their being passages; if they are, and are stopped up for any distance, it will be next to impossible to clear them out in such a place. Just here I involuntarily swallowed a portion of my lead pencil, nearly choking for a minute or two. We were now going in a zig-zag direction towards the north-west, and the height increased to 4 feet 6 inches, which gave us a little breathing space; but at 1,050 feet we were reduced to 2 feet 6 inches, and at 1100 feet we were again crawling with a height of only 1 foot 10 inches. We should probably have suffered more from the cold than we did, had not our risible faculties been excited by the sight of our fellâh in front, plunging and puffing throngh the water like a young grampus. At 1150 feet the passage again averaged a height of 2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches. At 1400 feet we heard the same sound of water dripping as described by Captain Wilson, the Rev. Dr Barclay, and others. I carefully looked backwards and forwards, and at last found a fault in the rock, where the water was gurgling, but whether rushing in or out I could not ascertain. At 1450 feet we commenced turning to the east, and the passage attained the height of 6 feet. At 1658 feet we came upon our old friend, the passage leading to the Ophel shaft, and, after a further 50 feet, to the Virgin's Fount. Our candles were just becoming exhausted, and the last three angles I could not take very exactly. There were fifty-seven stations of the compass. When we came out it was dark. We were nearly four hours in the water. I find a difference of 42 feet between my measurements and those of Dr Robinson; but if he took the length of the Virgin's Fount into account we shall very nearly agree."

Whence does the water of the Virgin's Fount come? Is it an independent spring? Or does it flow from Zion, or from some one of the reservoirs or cisterns beneath the Sakhrah ? Dr Barclay has written in his "City of the Great King," as if he wished the world to believe that his explorations have proved that the supply comes by an underground passage across Ophel from Zion. Several writers that came after him, Mr Lewin and Mr Ferguson included, have accepted his testimony on this point without question. Undoubtedly the impression naturally conveyed by the language of the two following