3S2 



TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



it appropriated by the enemy as " the south wall 

 of the basilica of Constantine." In the Sakhrah 

 itself his zeal for investigation spurred him to a 

 perilous exploit, with but little to show for what 

 might have cost him his life, besides seriously 

 compromising his associates. Getting three ladies, 

 of equal courage and curiosity, to keep the at- 

 tendant zaptichs in talk at a distant coiner of the 

 mosque, with the late Captain Warry, R. E., on 

 the lookout to give warning, he vaulted over the 

 railing of the Sakhrah, which he had previously 

 reconnoitred, and with a light iron lever proceeded 

 to dislodge one of the stones which formed the 

 flooring of the cave. An old wrench of the mus- 

 cles causing his shoulder to fail with the weight 

 of the flag — which was three feet by two feet six, 

 and nearly four inches thick — down went the 

 stone with a thundering crash into the hollow 

 beneath, which was, after all, no more than three 

 feet deep. Despite the frantic terror of the Mos- 

 lem friend, who unwillingly backed him in the 

 unhallowed enterprise, Captain Warren dived into 

 the hole, but could neither replace the stone nor 

 make anything out of the mysterious abyss, be- 

 yond the dubious surmise that it formed a gutter 

 to carry off the blood of the sacrifices. Happily, 

 no harm came to the adventurous party, and in 

 some unknown way the stone in a few days was 

 found restored to its place. 



It is in the narrative of personal adventures 

 such as this, rather than in archaeological discov- 

 eries or facts, that thie attraction of Captain War- 

 ren's volume consists. His account of the Jor- 

 dan Valley, his trip to Jericho, and his exploration 

 of the mounds there, though repaying him with 

 little more than bits of crumbling brick ; his 

 visit to the Samaritans, who form an interesting 

 group as they are photographed at prayer, and 

 of whose quaint yet repulsive Passover feast- 



ings he was an amused witness, show him to pos- 

 sess considerable powers of lively writing. This 

 Samaritan remnant comprises no more than one 

 hundred and fifty persons. Their physiognomy, 

 as well as their native dress and attitude, is 

 strongly marked, as is also that of the Ashkena- 

 zim, or German and Polish Jews, the whole body 

 of whom in Jerusalem is no less than 6,000. 

 One of the most valuable parts of Captain War- 

 ren's book, as well as the most novel in itself, is 

 his statistical account of the resources of Pales- 

 tine, the various classes of the population, and 

 the different trades and callings among which 

 they are distributed. No fewer than 1,320 shops 

 were examined in the course of this exhaustive 

 survey of Jerusalem ; the trades, the number of 

 active men, and their religion, being carefully 

 noted down. The only manufacture the city can 

 boast of is that of soap, of which our author 

 gives ample details. Indigo-dyeing foims an 

 industry of some importance. Captain Warren 

 speaks of five potteries in Jerusalem, all worked 

 by Moslems. It was probably after his time 

 that the impulse was given to this handicraft, 

 which has enriched many an archaeological collec- 

 tion, notably the Imperial Museum at Berlin, with 

 ingenious specimens of sham pottery. Captain 

 Warren closes his somewhat desultory volume 

 with some strictures on the past management of 

 the Palestine Exploration Fund, in which we feel 

 to a great extent inclined to concur. But for his 

 complaint that we have not long ere this had a 

 full and systematic statement of the results of 

 excavation in Jerusalem, with a conclusive set- 

 tlement of the topographical problems un- 

 der dispute, we fail to see any more solid 

 ground than his own failure to improve the 

 opportunity. 



— Saturday Review. 



BUTTERFLIES OF THE SEA. 



A WAY in the far north of the arctic re- 

 -*-^- gions, floating in myriads upon the sur- 

 face of the northern seas, and constituting vast 

 fields of life, through which ships may sail for 

 days and nights together, are found multitudes 

 of small animals, to which the appropriate name 

 of " butterflies of the sea" has been given. To 



watch one of these beings, pursuing its way 

 through the waters by means of two wing-like 

 appendages springing from the sides of the neck, 

 and to note the delicate body, inclosed in some 

 cases in a delicate glassy shell, the comparison 

 or resemblance to the aerial insect is by no 

 means far-fetched or strained. And in their 



