all the kingdoms of the world were to have been seen, is actually lower than the surface of the Mediterranean, and it is surrounded on every side by mountains more than double its height."
Tradition having been shown to be untrustworthy, when unsupported by other evidence, a general uncertainty prevailed with regard to Scripture places. No traveller could believe what his guide or guide book told him, and no student could have confidence in his map. The labour of investigation was beyond the power of private individuals; and no Government and no Society had ever sent out an organized expedition. But now happily this reproach is removed. The Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund were able to send out Major Conder, R.E., and Colonel Kitchener, R.E., and these officers, with their little party, spent seven years in carrying out a triangulation survey of the entire country west of the river Jordan. As a result of their labours, followed up by much patient work at home, we are now presented with a magnificent map of Western Palestine, on the scale of one inch to the mile, as beautifully and accurately executed as the ordnance map of England, with every road and ruin marked, and every conspicuous object filled in; with the hills and mountains correctly delineated and shaded, with the rivers and brooks all running in the right directions; with every vineyard, every spring of water, and almost every clump of trees set down in its place, and with thousands of names that never appeared on a Palestine map before. Moreover, while there are six hundred and twenty-two Scripture names of places west of the Jordan, and out of these three hundred and sixty were missing, the surveyors have succeeded in finding one hundred and seventy-two of these. A reduced map, on the scale of three-eighths of an inch to the mile, has been prepared, and contains the Old Testament names and New Testament names conspicuously marked, while other forms
