THE SURVEY OF WESTERN PALESTINE. 411 
we can give unqualified praise. It is the joint work of Lieutenants Conder and 
Kitchener, and was completed in circumstances of exceptional difficulty, the dis- 
turbed state of the country in 1877 making it necessary to work day and night 
(Sundays included), often in the face of considerable personal danger. 
The survey was commenced in January, 1872, and finished in 1877; it has 
cost during that period about £20,000, of which a large sum was expended from 
time to time in printing reports, etc. The necessary money was raised _princi- 
pally through the energetic action of the Secretary, Mr. Walter Besant, but it 
must have been relinquished had not Mr. Morrison, the treasurer, himself ad- 
vanced funds from time to time to carry on the operations at certain critical pe- 
riods of the Fund’s finances. 
The earliest Palestine Exploration Society in this country was founded in 
1804, but attracted little support. In 1808 the committee published a volume 
entitled, ‘‘A Brief Account of the Countries Adjoining the Lake of Tiberias, 
the Jordan, and the Dead Sea” (Hatchard, Piccadilly), which was, however, only 
a translation of some rough notes made by the well-known traveler, Seetzen. 
Two travelers were then sent out by the society for the purpose of exploring the 
country, but owing to the accounts they received of the dangerous state of the 
country they did not proceed further than Malta. 
The society after this lapsed into inactivity and its very existence was for- 
gotten until 1834, when all the books, papers, and funds were handed over to 
the Geographical Society. In 1840 a fresh association was founded with no 
better results than the former; but in 1864 asurvey of Jerusalem was made under 
the direction of the Ordnance Survey Department by Captain (now Lieutenant- 
Colonel) Wilson, Baroness Burdett-Coutts supplying the required funds. This 
called general attention to the defective state of information respecting the coun- 
try, and in May, the next year, the present society was formally constituted, — 
principally through the efforts of Mr. George Grove, under the name it now 
bears, ‘‘ The Palestine Exploration Fund.” Captain Wilson, who had completed 
his survey, was again sent out, in company with Lieutenant Anderson, and the 
exploration of the country was commenced in earnest. In 1867 Captain Warren 
commenced the excavations in Jerusalem itself, the progress of which was watched 
with great interest by the public, and resulted in adding largely to our knowledge 
of the subject and deciding several weighty problems concerning the sites of the 
Holy Sepulchre and the Temple. In 1869-70 Mr. (now Professor) E. H. Palmer, 
accompanied by Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake, made a journey of exploration 
through the Desert of the Exodus for and at the expense of the Fund. On his 
return the survey of Western Palestine was commenced and continued till its 
completion last year. Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake, who had an extensive acquaintance 
with the Arabic language and manners, accompanied the officers in the field and 
afforded most valuable aid in obtaining the correct nomenclature and other in- 
formation from the natives ; his death at Jerusalem in 1874 was a great loss to 
the society and to geographical science. M. Clermont Ganneau, a well-known 
