for cultivation; and these have been converted into one broad. terrace, on which the cemetery is laid out. In doing this, the slope beneath the brow was dug away; and thus there has been uncovered a large tract of scarped rock, which served as the foundation of the ancient city wall in this part. Some fragments of the wall itself were still to be seen upon the rock. Quite a number of bevelled stones had been dug out, and were lying scattered about. Some arches and several cisterns had likewise been uncovered. In one place a flight of thirty-six steps, cut in the scarped rock, led down to what was apparently the surface of the ground outside. The cemetery was not yet completed, and there were not many graves. That of the late bishop Alexander had as yet no monument. We now rode to the American cemetery.' It is a small plot on the summit of Zion, about the middle of the tract outside of the city wall, and south of the Latin and Armenian cemeteries. It is now surrounded by a high and substantial wall; with a door under lock and key. The surface has been levelled, and was now covered with green grass; which, however, was already beginning to show signs of withering under the rays of an oriental sun. There are here but three graves of Americans; those of Dr Dodge and Mrs Thomson, missionaries; and that of Prof. Fiske of Amherst College, who died here in May, 1847. One Englishman, Mr Waite of London, also lies buried here. He Prof. Fiske was an old and cherished friend of mine, of five and twenty years' standing. He had long suffered from feeble health; and when he was wavering as to his journey to the east, my persuasions had not been wanting to encourage him. accompanied the Rev. Dr Smith and his wife on their voyage to Beirut, and could have had no better introduction to the Holy Land. Mr Whiting travelled with him to Jerusalem. Here he became affected by an acute disease; but they started for Beirût, and had already advanced a day's journey, when the progress of the disease compelled them to return to Jerusalem. After lingering for nearly a fortnight in the house of Dr McGowan, he died peacefully, May 27th. His body lies here upon Mount Zion; but his spirit lives in the celestial Zion. A neat monument, erected by his friends in Amherst College, with an appropriate Latin inscription, marks the spot. We sought, and with some difficulty found again, the grave of Bradford, in the Latin cemetery." Passing around the city on the west, we examined the traces of the ancient third wall on the northwest and north of the city." 1 See Vol. I. p. 230. [i. 310.] 2 See "Memoir of Rev. N. W. Fiske, by H. Humphrey, D. D." Amherst 1850, See Vol. I. p. 229. [i. 338.] Vol. I. pp. 314, 315. [i. 465-467.] For a considerable distance they are very distinct; and he must be committed to some preconceived theory, who would deny them. Especially is this the case with the southern portion, the towers, and the massive stones among the olive trees towards the northeast. They quite correspond to the description by Josephus, of the general course of the third wall. At a later hour we went to the church of the Holy Sepulchre ; mainly in order to look at the tomb of Joseph and Nicodemus, so called. This is on the western side of the rotunda; not the exact western door, but the one next north, which is usually open. I had taken the precaution to bring along a candle; and it was well; for the lamps afforded only the least possible light. The entrance from the door leads through the chapel on the left, that of the Syrians; and thence into the crypt, which is beyond it. This crypt is very small. The front is built up with masonry, apparently a portion of the circular wall behind the galleries, on which the dome rests. The back wall, which is curved and irregular, the roof, and the floor, are solid rock. This small crypt has evidently been excavated in and under the rock; but without any regularity of form. Towards the southwest are two low open niches for bodies cut in lengthwise; and towards the northwest is the appearance of two others now closed up, as if bodies were in them. In the floor, and occupying almost the whole floor, is excavated the upper portion (towards the head) of a small sarcophagus; which then is further excavated (towards the feet) under the floor. A lid once covered this upper part. The length of the whole sarcophagus is only four feet. At right angles to this, on the east, a similar and still smaller sarcophagus is sunk in the floor, and extends under the wall in front. That here is a rock-hewn sepulchre, there can be no doubt; but, how far its date is to be carried back, is a very different question. It has been quietly assumed, that this tomb existed here before our Lord's crucifixion; and that therefore the spot was outside of the second wall of the ancient city. But even granting that the tomb existed before the erection of Constantine's church, we are by no means warranted to infer, that it goes back beyond the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. Rocktombs continued to be excavated around the city apparently after that event. The monolithic tombs in the valley of Jehoshaphat are hardly earlier than the Christian era; and the sepulchres with Greek inscriptions and crosses and with paintings, 'Schultz rightly says, that a man can hardly stand upright in it; and that it cannot hold more than three persons at once; p. 96. So too Quaresmius, II. p. 568. Schultz, Jerusalem p. 96. Ritter Erdk. XVI. i. p. 434. Williams Holy City, IL pp. 194 195. south of the valley of Hinnom, testify to their Christian origin, or at least to their use by Christians. It certainly is no impossible supposition, that, during the two and a half centuries which intervened before Constantine's undertaking, this tract lay desolate, and thus sepulchres might have been excavated in it. Indeed, there would seem to be a probability, that it was thus desolate; for had it been covered with dwellings, we can hardly suppose it would have been at once received as the place of the crucifixion; which according to express Scripture was without the city. But there is no need of any such hypothesis; for there is apparently no good reason for referring this tomb even to so early an age as that of Constantine. This is obviously true in respect to the sarcophagi sunk in the floor. No other instance will be found, I think, of like excavations in the floor of a crypt. They are also smaller than usual, and differ in form from all other sarcophagi. It may however be said, and it has been said, that these two excavations are a later work; while the crypt itself and the niches perpendicular to the side are ancient.3 But here too a like difficulty meets 4 In all other tombs, where such niches or loculi are found, they are either in the sides of regular apartments, as in the tombs of the Kings so called, and of the Judges, and elsewhere; or in the side of a long passage, as in the tombs of the Prophets on the Mount of Olives. They exist nowhere else in a crypt so low and small, so irregular in form, and in which too every thing is so crowded together. Further, the numerous sepulchral chambers around Jerusalem are all excavated horizontally in the natural or artificial face of the rock; with the exception of the tombs of the Prophets, which differ from this, as well as from all others. The entrance is always at the side, and never from above. But the crypt in question is nearly or quite on a level with the pavement of the rotunda; and while, therefore, it could readily be excavated in the rock adjacent to the church; yet it is at least eighteen or twenty feet lower than the ground in the street outside; where too there has been little or no accumulation. If therefore the crypt existed here before the church of Constantine, it was a deep subterranean excavation, made apparently from above; and quite unlike all the sepulchral chambers which are still so numerous around the city. 1 See Vol. I. pp. 351 sq. 354, 355. [i. 521, 524, 526.] * Heb. 13, 12. John 19, 20. So Schultz, who admits, that these sarcophagi in the floor may be later, perhaps of the age of the crusades; p. 97. Ritter. XVI. i. p. 434 sq. VOL. III.-16 See Vol. I. p. 352. [i. 522.] This estimate accords with the judgment of several gentlemen long resident in the city. Prof. Willis says "from twenty to twenty-five feet;" Holy City II. p. 238. I have thus brought forward the circumstances, which go to show a probability strong enough at least to counterbalance the mere assumption in behalf of this crypt, that it is of high antiquity. To these may be added the destruction of the church by order of the Khalif el-Hâkim in the eleventh century; when it was razed to the very foundations. That an earlier sepulchre like this would be left unharmed, is hardly probable. To what period then may this crypt be referred? The practice of interring the dead in churches reaches back beyond the age of the crusades. The two brothers, Godfrey and Baldwin, the first Frank kings of Jerusalem, were both buried in the church of the Holy Sepulchre.' It was not unnatural in the crusaders and holy men of that period, to desire that their own bodies might repose within those sacred precincts. It is easy to conceive, that out of such a feeling in individuals or a family, a crypt like this should have been constructed in that or an earlier age. To do this in the least space possible, in order not to encroach upon the church, what better device than to imitate the ancient sepulchral chambers by which they were surrounded? The facility of the work from within the church, the irregular form and contracted space, and the crowding together of the loculi; all favour this supposition. In this aspect, the tomb, even if we suppose it unaffected by the desolations of el-Hâkim, cannot have been constructed earlier than the seventh or eight century; for before the labours of Modestus no church existed over the Holy Sepulchre itself. There may have been other like tombs within or connected with the church, which have disappeared in the revolutions to which the edifice has been subjected. Even the present crypt has been encroached upon by the wall in front. Thus far I have discussed the question of this sepulchre upon its own merits, independently of all topographical and historical considerations. Hereafter I hope to show, upon the ground of these latter, that its existence can have no weight in determining the course of the ancient second wall. The evening of this day was spent by invitation at a meeting of the Literary Society of Jerusalem, held at the rooms of Mr Finn, the British consul, its founder and chief supporter. The paper of the evening was read by Mr Finn, on the Ramah of Samuel. An Arabic letter was also read from the priest of the Samaritans at Nâbulus to Mr Finn, inviting him and his family to be present at their sacrifice of the Passover on the following Monday. It was a singular document; not so much Holy City I. pp. 397, 404. 2 "Es ist allerdings wahr, dass die Kreuzfahrer sich gern in der Kirche des Heiligen Grabes beisetzen liessen;" Schultz, however for the style, as on account of the person and the occasion. Mr Finn also communicated to the Society the following as the most recent statement of the latitude and longitude of the Holy City, obtained by him through the Foreign Office from the Admiralty in London: LAT. N. 31° 46′ 35′′ LONG. E. 35° 18' 30" from Greenwich.1 Saturday, May 1st. This was to us a busy day. It was likewise to some extent a rainy day. The weather throughout yesterday had been hazy and lowering. The same continued this morning; and at about 10 o'clock it began to rain, which is very unusual at this season. It held up after 3 o'clock; but during the ensuing night there was heavy rain. Dr McGowan had kindly made arrangements to accompany us to several points of interest and importance. Indeed, for admittance to one or two of these we were indebted to the respect and confidence with which, as a physician, he is regarded by the native population. Soon after 9 o'clock Dr McGowan called, accompanied by Mr Calman and bringing with him his dragoman, a native Greek Christian. We first went to a place near our lodgings, on the west of the street leading to the Damascus gate, where a house had been torn away, and excavations were made for the purpose of laying new foundations. They had dug a hole like a well nearly fifty feet deep; and at this depth had found substructions and an arch. These had been seen by our friends a few days before; but we were now unfortunately too late, as the hole had been partly filled up. We went next to the Serai or barracks at the northwest corner of the Haram area; which we also visited on our former journey. We were at once admitted, and went upon the roof. Besides the general view which I have formerly described, our attention was specially directed to the following three particulars, viz. That the scarped rock, at the northwest corner, extends for some distance along both the western and northern sides, being 1 The authority on which this statement rests, is unknown to me. The latitude is six minutes less than the mean latitude assumed in Vol. I. p. 259. [i. 381.] It is also one minute greater than that found by Niebuhr; ibid.-The following extract of a letter from Sir F. Beaufort to the author, dated Dec. 13, 1855, gives another authority for the longitude: "It appears from the account given by Capt. Graves, in his letter to me from Malta of |