On the Nabbatic River. a 
which fill the pool. Now the condition necessary to make the 
stream issuing at B intermit, is that the capacity of the syphon 
S be greater than the small rills D, E, F, can supply. If the 
supply were greater,.or exactly equal to the capacity of the sy- 
phon, the pool would always be kept full, and of course no inter- 
mission could occur.’ The periods of intermission, as well-as the 
size of the river, depend upon the capacity of the reservoir A, 
the supply from D, E, F', and the caliber of the syphon, 8. If 
_ it required six days for D, E, F, to fill the pool, and the syphon 
Could exhaust it in one day, you have the conditions required by 
____ the statement of Josephus, a river running only on the Sabbath. 
_ _If.D,E, F, fill the pool in one day, and their continued supply 
is so nearly equal to the draining ¢apacity of the syphon as to re- 
quire st to exhaust it, then you have the river running six days, 
_ cording to Pliny’s account, and resting on the seventh. The 
fact now is, if my information be correct, that the supply fills the 
pool in about two days and a half, and the syphon draws it all 
off in half a day. ne ERE OP iis 
_ “Ifthe account of Josephus was strictly true when he wrote, 
*ne-of the following changes must have occurred, during the 
| __ “ighteen hundred years that have since elapsed. Either the sup- 
Ply from D, E, F',-must have so increased, as to be able to fill the 
Pool’ in two days and a half, and the capacity of the syphon so 
_ Snlarged as to exhaust the pool with its triple supply of water in 
half the time it formerly did; or, the supply, and the capacity of 
u Syphon remaining unchanged, the size of the reservoir must 
have been reduced to about one third of its ancient dimensions. 
The former supposition is not probable in itself and is diseounte- 
hanced by the consideration, that in the time of Josephus the 
athount of water was so great as to obtain the name of river, and 
it can only claim that title now by courtesy. But we may read- 
— ily admit that the pool may have been partly filled up by debris, 
_ or by the falling in of its superincumbent roof of rock. If Pliny’s 
: account Were true, then either the supply must be greatly dimin- 
- ished, or the reservoir greatly enlarged, for according to him, it 
‘Tequired but one day of rest to fill the pool, while now it takes 
‘wo days and a half. Either of these hypothetical changes is pos- 
Sible, but neither of them very probable. Nor are we compelled 
_,1© resort to any of them. -I suppose the Sabbatic River was al- 
nearly what we find the stream at Mar Giirgius now to be. 
Vagueness of general rumor, the proverbial love of th 
2% 
