Bescrijption of Minerals from Palestine. iv^^ 



and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for 

 Moses, and one for Ehas." This lofty mountain, together 

 with all the hills, in this part of Palestine, is. if the testimony 

 of travellers may be credited, composed almost entirely of 

 limestone. 



7. " From Aceldama," St. Matthew asserts, that the 

 chief priests, on receivi'ig again the thirty pieces of silver, 

 which they had given JudiiS Iscariot, as a reward, for betray- 

 ing his Lord to them, •' took counsel, and boiight wiih (hem 

 the potter'-; field to bury strangers in :" it was therefore called 

 the " Field of Blood "' From this " field," which is south- 

 east from the city, in the vall"y of Hinnom, the specimen 

 was taken :t is a white friable caroonate of lime. "•Acel- 

 dama," or "Field of Blood," says Dr. Clarke, ' belonjis to 

 the Armenians, and is still a place of burial it has ever been 

 famous, on account of the sircophogous virtue, possessed by 

 the earth about it, hastening the decay of dead bodies '' 



8. '• From David's cave. See i Sainuel xxiv." It is a 

 calcareous concretion, formerly embracing small limbs, or 

 stocks, of vegetables, which are now decomposed and gone, 

 leaving the ma-?s full of little cavities Similar specimens I 

 have broken off from the sides of a cave in Bennington, 

 Vermont. 



" Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all 

 Israel, and went to seek David and his men, upon the rocks 

 of the wild goats, and he came to the sheep-cotes by the way, 

 wher(^ was a cave, and Saul went in to cover his feet ; and 

 David and his men remained in the sides of the cave." The 

 cave was in the wilderness of En-gedi, thirty-seven miles 

 south of Jerusalem; (Dr. Parish) and was, probacy, a natu- 

 ral production. But what were its dimensions ? We are 

 not informed, whether Saul's army of three thousand men 

 entered ihis subterranean apartment with him or not. It is 

 likely they encamped whhout. But Saul himself went in 

 "to cover his feet." and to take refreshment by sleep. The 

 youngest son of Jesse, and his six hundred men were now 

 lodged in the srdts of tiie cavern, and, probably, at a con- 

 sider-fble distance from their royal master. A conversation 

 was held, between David and his soldiers, who urged him to 

 take the life of his enemy, whom the Lord had now placed in 

 his power, and who had so often barbarously attempted his 

 destruction. But David, shuddering at the suggestion of 

 effecting kingly homicidlej andj wishing to set a better exampb 



