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Colonel Sir Henry James on the Levelling 



[May 3, 



May 3, 1866. 



Lieut. -General SABINE_, President, in the Chair. 



In conformity with the Statutes, the names of the Candidates re- 

 commended for election into the Society were read from the Chair, as 

 follows : — 



John Charles Bucknill, M.D. 

 Rev. Frederick William Farrar. 

 William Augustus Guy, M.B. 

 James Hector, M.D. 

 John William Kaye, Esq. 

 Hugo Muller, Ph.D. 

 Charles Murchison, M.D. 

 WilHam Henry Perkin, Esq. 



The Yen. John Henry Pratt, M.A. 

 Capt. George Henry Richards, R.N. 

 Thomas Richardson, Esq., M.A. 

 William Henry Leighton Russell, 

 Esq. 



Rev. Wilham Selwyn, D.D. 

 Rev. Richard Townsend, M.A. 

 Henry Watts, B.A. 



The following communications were read : — 



I. " Report on the Levelling from the Mediterranean to the Dead 

 Sea.'' By Colonel Sir Henry James, R.E./F.R.S. Received 

 April 5, 1866. 



The instructions for levelling from the INIediterranean to the Dead Sea 

 having been received after the party had arrived at Jerusalem, it was 

 thought best to level in the first place from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea 

 during the cool months, and to complete the line to the Mediterranean at 

 Jaffa, when the party were on their way home. 



But in describing the line levelled, we may assume that it was made 

 direct from Jaffa to the Dead Sea. 



The line selected was. that which runs across the maritime plain direct 

 from Jaffa to Lydda, three miles beyond which, on the road to Beth Horon, 

 the line turns to the right by Jimsu, Birfileeah, and Beit Sira ; and from 

 thence up the Wady Suleiman to El Jib, where it again joins the old 

 Roman Road from Lydda, by Beth Horon to Jerusalem. But at about 

 \^ mile on the north road from the Damascus Gate, the line turns to the 

 eastward over Mount Scopus, where it reached the altitude of 2724 feet, 

 the height of the top of the large cairn on it. This was the highest point 

 crossed between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. 



From Mount Scopus the line follows the high ground to the Mount 

 of Olives, and thence takes the road down to Bethany, and, following 

 the road by Khan Hadhur to near Jericho, the line turns to the right 

 within about a mile of the latter place, and was carried thence across 

 the plain bordering the Dead Sea to a point opposite a small island in the 

 sea itself. 



