The Committee of the Palestine 3°=ploration Fund have resolved to promote an expedition to the Sea of Galilee, and in appealing to the public for support have issued the following circular, which contains much valuable information:—After the surveyor, the archmologist; after the theodolite, the spade. The great Survey of Palestine, west of the Jordan, having been brought to a successful conclusion, the Committee are enabled to turn their attention to that examination of certain special districts which was contemplated in the original prospectus of the Society, and has been dinars kept in view. One great object of the Survey was to furnish that solid geographical knowledge without which the Historian and Commentator, as well as the Geologist and Mineralogist, work inthe dark. That object is now attained. The ground has been cleared, the opportunity for a close examination gained. We have a real of those districts in the Holy Land which are connected with the life and labour of Our Lord. The Survey is one means to the great end of Biblical Mustration. For six years we have been engaged in work on the surface; we now Propose to work beneath it. Foremost amongst those special districts is the Sea of Galilee. A special examination of these shores will produce results of the greatest value. The work might be confined to a consist, if possible, of two officers of Royal limited period; its cost might fall within a Engineers, an Arabic scholar, a geologist stated sum; and it would furnish materials for a monograph to be published without delay. The main interest, however, gathers round the three towns of Capernaum, Cho-rain, and Bethsaida, The controversy with' regard to the sites of the three Gospel cities is still open. Capernaum has been variously placed at the Round Fountain, at the mounds of Minyeh, and at Tel Hum. The advocates of the first-named site, the Round Fountain, maintain that it is the Capharnahum of Josephus, and point to the fact that the coracinus is still found in it; on the other hand, its opponents argue that there are no ruins nearer the fountain than AbuShusheh, which is on the hills some distance off; that no tradition has ever been connected with it; that the fountain does not now, and never could have irrigated any considerable portion of Gennesareth; and that the fountain of Ain et Tabigal, once carried at a high level by a remarkable piece of engineering into the Plain of Gennesareth, is more likely to be the fountain mentioned by Josephus. In favour of the mounds of Minyeh, it is urged that the old Roman roa which crossed the Jordan at Jisr Ben' Yaktb left the shores of the lake at this point; that the name of Capernaum might very well be taken from the Tabigah foun tain, the waters of which were carried along the face of the hill above the mounds by a rock-hewn conduit; that the mounds. themselves are evidence of the former existence of a place of some size; and that Tslmusic doctors (see Conder's Tent Work in Palestine," p. 184) speak of Capernaum as the city of Minyeh. Against, the site, it is agreed that no traces have been found of old buildings, or of any tombs of a distinctively Jewish character; and that in the excavations of 1866 nothing hi modern masonry and pottery was found at the lowest depth (12 feet) reached; whi the earlier Christian traditions favour Tei Hum rather than Minyeh. It is propose: to make an exact and exhaustive e: ation of the Lake District in the followi respects 1.—Excavations will be cat Minych, Tel Hum, Kerazeh, at the mouth of the Jorda cavatis officer in command, will be ina Tabigah, Tel Oreimah, the tombs to the north, the mounds of Genuesareth, Abu Shusheh, Mejdel, Ain-el Fuliych, Irbid, Tiberias, Kerak, Umm Keis, Kalat ét Husn, the ruins at Khersa, and tombs near it, Et Tell, the ruins in the Batiheh, and such other mounds and remains as are found on the borders of the lake.
2.—The Eastern shores will be completely surveyed and mapped, and the ruins amined.
3.—The remarkable synagogue of Tel Hum, which, if that place be Capernaum, is the synagogue in which our Lord taught (John, vi. 59), will be cleared to the foundations; every' remaining stone, and every fragment of its broken columns and arch fecture collected, and care will be taken to prevent further destruction.
4.—Whatever additions can be made to the already large store of information in the hands of the Committee as to nomenclature, legends, and traditions will be collecte: Thegeology ofthe district will be thoroughly examined, especially with reference to the formation of the Jordan valley, and former volcanic disturbances; notes will be taken of the meteorology, the botany, and zoology, of the district; casts will be taken of inseriptions; localities will be photographed; plans will be laid down on a conveniently large scale.
5.—As regards the time, the party should be in the field by the Ist of December, and work continuously till the end of March, after which field work becomes impossible on account of the growth of thistle sand the thick vegetation. The expedition should and naturalist, and two non-commissioned officers of Royal Engineers. The whole expense of the expedition should not exceed £2,500. For this comparatively small sum detailed and scientific examination may be made, and questions which have dis turbed the Christian world for centuries may be finally set at rest.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.