TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 99 
are all engaged in maritime affairs, and shipbuilding is carried on with considerable 
energy. There is no room for cultivation on this confined spot, so that all sup- 
plies are drawn from the mainland, little more than a mile distant. They depend 
for water on cisterns, and do not appear to be cognizant of the submarine fountain 
described by Strabo. 
With the same view to the probable requirements of inereasing commerce of these 
rich countries, Capt, Allen made a little survey of the ancient harbour of Seleucia in 
Pieria, situated still further ta the north, in the bay of Antioch, near the mouth of 
the Orontes, in lat. 36° 8! N. and long. 35° 55! 30" E. This noble work consists of 
an inland basin, connected with a small sea-port by a canal, and of a magnificent 
culvert cut through a mountain for the purpose of feeding the one and cleansing the 
other, as well as to avert the destructive effects of the mountain torrents. 
The sea-port, noticed in the Acts of the Apostles as the place whence St. Paul em- 
barked, is formed by two massive moles, about 200 yards apart. That to the north 
is quite a ruin; the other has its inner part nearly perfect, constructed with large 
blocks of stone placed transversely, some of which measured 25 feet, and one, broken, 
29 feet 4 inches. This port, though small, was probably sufficient for the reception 
of ships preparatory to their entering the basin, and for the purpose of refuge in 
bad weather. 
The inner harbour or basin was probably an excavation, with a strong wall front- 
ing the sea. It is retort-shaped, communicating with the sea-port by the neckpart, 
a canal about a thousand feet in length, and was possibly at a higher level than the 
sea, and entered by locks, as Colonel Chesney saw the remains of hinges of gates. 
The basin is about 700 yards long by 450 wide. It is now a swamp, through 
which a little stream passes to the sea by a gap in the wall. The great culvert is 
nearly 1200 yards long, terminating near the sea-port. Its commencement is at 
the turning of a little valley, across which an enormous wall was built for the pur- 
pose of directing the torrents towards it. This wall has a great portion of it still 
standing ; the dilapidated part being in the middle, where probably there were sluice- 
gates to feed the basin. The culvert is for the greater part an “‘ open cutting,” in 
one place not less than 150 feet deep in the solid rock. 
There are two tunnels of 2) feet aperture, with a channel for the water in the 
middle ; which arrangement was doubtless intended to facilitate the removal of frag- 
ments of rock that might have been carried thither by torrents. There is also a 
conduit at the side to supply the marine suburb of the city with water. 
Some Greek and Latin inscriptions are to be seen in the culvert, but too much de- 
faced by time to be legible. 
The principal object Capt. Allen has in view in describing this ancient and splen- 
did work, which had been previously examined by other travellers, and especially by 
Colonel Chesney, R.A., is to show the facility with which it could be again ren- 
dered available for the reception of shipping: for, although each of the three 
members of it is dilapidated to a certain extent, enough remains to justify the belief 
that its restoration could be accomplished without much labour or expense. 
Both Col. Chesney and Capt. Allen, by independent calculations, estimated the 
cost of cleaning the inner harbour, by manual labour entirely, at about £30,000 ; but 
Capt. Allen considers that by making use of the appliances left by the ancients to 
aid in the operations of nature, the greater part of both expense and labour would 
be reduced. 
To this end, whether anciently it was a basin above the level of the sea, and 
- entered by locks or no, he would now propose to make it so, by raising and strength- 
ening the west wall, which is the only part of the circuit of the basin not bounded 
by rising ground, so that any depth required might thus be had, as there is a per- 
ennial stream running through it. 
When full, the immense volume of the basin, a surface of about 47 acres, might he 
used as a “ backwater” to clear the canal and the sea-port. The piers of this would 
have to be repaired and carried further out seaward, which would be the principal 
part of the expense. The culvert and the great wall with its sluice-gates might be 
easily repaired. 
The examination of the ruins of this once-flourishing city not being the principal 
object, Capt. Allen did not devote much time to them, but he visited some mat: 
