ON RECENT INVESTIGATIONS IN MOAB AND EDOM. DAT 
wind is that it becomes a hot wind west of Jordan. Whilst 
we were shivering on the eastern plateau, the people at 
Jerusalem were having one of those hot sirocco winds 
which bring fever and sickness. This may be attributed to 
the fact that the east wind from the desert drives before it 
the heated unhealthy air that is always rising from the 
Dead Sea and the Jordan valley. 
The efforts made to impound and store water in the olden 
times are remarkable. The whole country is full of large 
cisterns and reservoirs. 1 was also much struck with the 
way in which terraces had been built across the valleys to 
retain the surface soil and prevent the too rapid escape of 
the rainfall. Arrangements were also made for irrigating 
the lands. 
At one spot on the plateau of Edom, in the vicinity of 
Petra, there is an oak forest, or rather the remains of one. 
It was still a large wood and in some places so dense as to 
be difficult to pass through. I think Professor Hull mentions 
that he saw from the Arabah what he took to be trees on 
the hills above him, and I have no doubt that what he saw 
was a part of this forest. 
The old towns well deserve examination. There are fine 
Roman remains, but some of the most interesting ruins are 
those of the Christian period, which have, here and there, 
marked characteristics. There was little or no wood in the 
country suitable for building purposes, and all the roofs of 
the houses were of stone. They built, without mortar, a 
series of closely spaced parallel arches, or arcades of stone, 
and then laid large flat slabs of stone on the crowns of the 
arches to form the roof. Some small churches and nearly 
all the large reservoirs were roofed in a similar manner. In 
the latter case the stone roof kept the water clean and 
prevented evaporation. The Turks have done much for a 
country in which, a few years ago, no one could travel 
without fear of being robbed. In that part of the world 
they have, at any rate, been civilizers, and their occnpation 
has made it easy for travellers to visit Moab and Edom. 
I have no time to go into the numerous instances in which 
the history of Moab and Edom comes into contact with that 
of the Israelites; but it is extremely interesting to study 
that history with a knowledge of the geography of the 
country. I was fortunate enough to obtain a few Greek 
inscriptions of Christian origin, which are the first that have 
come from Moab. They were discovered accidentally, and 
