488 REVIEWS — DEFORMED FRAGMENTARY SKULL. 



race, by the form and characteristics, in a skull obtained under 

 unusual circumstances. In 1857 Mr. J. Judson Barclay presented 

 to the Academy a human skull, in an imperfect condition, brought 

 from a remarkable cave visited by him at Jerusalem, with the 

 following results : — 



Having received some information of the existence of a very 

 extensive cave near the Damascus gate at Jerusalem, (entirely un- 

 known to Franks,) Mr. Barclay, in conjunction with his father and 

 brother, resolved upon its exploration. Accordingly, having obtained 

 permission to this effect, from the Nazir Eftendi, they repaired to the 

 cave, the mouth of which is situated directly below the city wall, 

 and the houses on Bezetha, They found the wall at this spot about 

 ten feet in thickness. Through a narrow, serpentine passage which, 

 traverses it they gained an entrance into the cave. The length of 

 the cavern they estimated at seven hundred and fifty feet, and the 

 circumference upwards of three thousand feet. The roof is supported 

 by numerous regular pillars hewn out of the solid limestone rock, 

 The floor from the entrance to the termination forms an inclined 

 plane, the descent of which is in some places Yerj rapid. About 100 

 feet from the entrance a very deep and precipitous pit was discovered 

 containing a human skeleton ; supposed to be that of some unfortu- 

 nate who had fallen headlong down and broken his neck, or rather his 

 skull, judging from the fracture which it exhibits. The bones, of 

 almost giant proportions, gave evidence, from their decayed state, of 

 having remained in that position for many years. The skull, unlike 

 the rest of the skeleton, was in a remarkable state of preservation. 

 Numerous crosses on the wall indicated that the devout Pilgrim or 

 Crusader had been there ; and a few Arabic and Hebrew inscriptions 

 — too much efiaced to be deciphered, — proved that the place was not 

 unknown to the Jew and the Arab. The explorers found many 

 intricate, meandering passages leading to immense halls as white as 

 the driven snow, and supported by colossal pillars of irregular shape : 

 some of them placed there by the hand of nature, others of them 

 evidently by the stone quarriers to prevent the tumbling in of the 

 city. From their explorations the party concluded that this cavern 

 and the Grotto of Jeremiah, two or three hundreds yards distant, 

 originally constituted one immense cave which was formerly the great 

 quarry of Jerusalem. 



The cave appears, therefore, to be a very old one. An allusion 



