deeply cut in the flat surface of the natural rock. It appears to be in Hebrew letters, and to read "Boundary of Gezer." He afterwards found a second, similar to it; and from their position he judges that the city lay four-square, and had its angles directed to the cardinal points of the compass. It was this city of Gezer which was re-conquered from the Philistines by Pharaoh, and handed over to Solomon as a dowry with his daughter.
We owe to Major Conder the discovery of another of these Levitical cities, namely, the royal city of Debir, south-west of Hebron, together with the "upper and nether springs of water" (at a distance), which Caleb gave to his daughter, on the occasion of her marriage (Judges i. 15). The modern name is Dhâheriyeh, and the place is evidently an ancient site of importance, to which several old roads lead from all sides. Another name for this place was Kirjath-Sepher, which means Book-Town; so that it must have been noted for books or writings of some kind.
In tracing the boundaries of the tribes the surveyors found reason to look upon the Book of Joshua as "the Domesday Book of Palestine." The towns in a district are all mentioned together, and in such consecutive topographical order that many Scripture sites could be identified from this very circumstance. The tribal boundaries are shown to be almost entirely natural, namely, rivers, ravines, ridges, and the water-shed lines of the country. It is a remarkable fact, however, that while the descriptions of tribal boundaries and cities are full and minute in the territory of Judea, and scarcely less so in Galilee, they are fragmentary and meagre within the bounds of Samaria. There is no account of the conquest of Samaria, nor does the list of royal cities include the famous Samaritan towns of Shechem, Thebez, Acrabbi, and others. No list of the cities of Ephraim and Manasseh is included in the topographical chapters of the Book of Joshua, nor any descrip-
