THE WATER SUPPLY OF JERUSALEM. 



163 



Discussion. 



The Chairman. — I do not know if anyone is here who can bring 

 personal knowledge to bear. An engineering controversy is rather 

 difficult for one who is not an expert to decide. 



The chief thing which impresses one is the marvellous engineering 

 skill of the old Jewish engineers, who could plan an aqueduct which 

 fulfils so well its purpose, and it strikes me that we are not so 

 superior, as we are apt to think, to those who have gone before us 

 in these matters. The question now at issue is whether the 

 arrangement was the best that could be done at the price, or 

 whether it would not have been better to make another one. That 

 is a very nice point for engineers. 



Mr. Martin Eouse. — I thought certainly they would have made 

 another one, for several offers were made to them, first by the 

 Baroness Burdett Coutts, and then Sir Henry Lechmere, and they 

 were asked to carry it out ; but the Turkish Government did not 

 accept it, as appeared on several occasions, because the governorB 

 themselves were not to be the executors of the scheme. 



We all know something of the principle on which the Turkish 

 Pashas go to work, to secure as much as they can for themselves. 



We read that they have an average rainfall of about 25 inches, 

 whereas in London it is 27 inches, with a much less degree of sun- 

 shine, and therefore they must be surely in need of water in the hot 

 season. 



Mrs. Finn. — It so happens that it fell to my lot to repair this 

 very aqueduct of which Sir Charles Wilson speaks. When I was 

 living in Jerusalem I had the pleasure of helping in some operations 

 in connection with Solomon's Gardens, where the tenure of the land 

 was practically on condition that we kept that aqueduct in repair ; 

 and therefore from year to year I had to see that that small 

 aqueduct from Solomon's Palace to the Temple in Jerusalem was 

 kept in repair. The portion the Secretary alluded to between 

 Bethlehem and Solomon's Pools is generally in excellent repair. It 

 is just after it leaves Bethlehem that it is likely to be broken ; but 

 when we were all living there the Governor did twice think it worth 

 while to repair it. Once in 1858 the then Governor put it into 



