were sunk through the accumulated rubbish, and were always carried down to the natural rock. In cases where the miners came upon artificial structures—arches, aqueducts, cisterns, or other works of man—they were carefully explored and measured, and plans of them made to scale. It was considered important to examine the underground masonry of the Temple rampart; but as the walls are regarded as sacred, and it was desirable not to offend the susceptibilities of the inhabitants, this was accomplished by sinking shafts at a distance from the wall and driving lateral galleries. Sometimes when an unsympathising Turkish official came to inspect the works, a twist was given to the rope as he descended, and so, having lost his bearings, he could not be sure that he gazed upon the foundations of the Temple when they were really shown to him. The work was continued until the year 1870, and the results are recorded in the Jerusalem volume of the Memoirs. Let us now glance at some of the more striking discoveries on all the four sides of the Haram.
In the Tyropœon Valley.—On the west side of the Haram, about 39 feet from the south-western angle, a great stone is seen projecting from the wall. Dr Robinson, the American traveller, believed it to be the spring-stone of an arch—perhaps the first arch of a bridge going to the Upper City—but others took a different view, and the question could only be settled by excavation. The span of the arch, as deduced from the curve of the spring-stone, should be about 42 feet. At that distance from the wall Warren discovered the pier of the arch, resting on the rock at a depth of 42 feet. It is 12 feet 2 inches in thickness, 52 feet 6 inches in length (the spring-stone above ground is 50 feet) and is constructed of long drafted stones, similar to those in the wall, one of them being over 13 feet in length and weighing ten tons. Three courses of stones were in place on the eastern side and two on the western.
