towns" as belonging to the tribe of Manasseh (1 Chron. vii. 29). A black mound at the modern Beisan represents the Bethshan or Bethshean of the text. On this natural fortress stood the citadel. The ruins have been planned by Conder; and his drawings will be found in the Memoirs of the Survey. Not far from Beisan are the ruins of a Roman bridge across the Jordan—the highway to Gadara. In the plain of Beisan, as we learn from Mr Trelawney Saunders, are twenty-four tells, scattered all over the upper and lower terraces. They still bear distinctive names; and Mr Saunders feels no doubt that they are the sites of former habitations, scenes of domestic happiness and abundant wealth. Moreover, he surmises that the life and happiness of the district may be restored almost as rapidly as they were obliterated, when once the civilisation and power of the West becomes conscious of the connection between Oriental prosperity and that of its own manufacturing populations. "These tells," he says, "probably mark the substantial and lordly centres of villages, the latter more or less extensive, and readily levelled with the ground. They denote the populous character of the region, when a strong government restrained the plundering Ishmaelites, and protected instead of robbed people. The tells are more indicative of a large population than the remains of such a 'splendid' and 'noble' city as Beisan, when it was either Jewish Bethshan or heathen Scythopolis; with its dominating citadel, temples, hippodrome, theatre, baths, monument, and bridge." If there be any truth in this view of the matter we may expect interesting results from an exploration of these tells. Conder describes the locality as one of the best watered in Palestine, and (in April) literally streaming with rivulets from some fifty springs.
The death of Saul brought David to the throne. But David had previously gone through an adventurous
