The Palestine Exploration Fund.

these Sergeant Birtles was invalided home in the spring of last year , but on recovery went out again . Of him Bro . Warren speaks in the highest terms . Corpora ] Duncan unfortunately died in August 1868 , Hanson was sent home by Bro .

Lieut . Warren j Turner was invalided home . There remain now , therefore , Sergeant Birtles and Corporals Ellis , Cock , and Mackenzie . Leave was granted by the War Office in March 1868 , to draw stores from Malta , which has been

found of great service . Bro . Lieut . Warren ' s original instructions were to excavate as close to the Haram Wall as possible permission was , however , granted him in April , 1868 , to dig elsewhere if he thought proper , a

permission of which he has availed himself to work at Bir Eyub , the Virgin ' s Fountain , and the Muristan .

It is not necessary for the report of the Executive Committee to contain any account in detail of Bro . Warren's work . This will be found in his letters and in the published iC statements of progress . " The Executive Committee , therefore ,

only call the attention of the General Committee to the main points of interest . These are Robinson's Arch , with its aqueducts , circular pools , and subterranean canal ; Wilson ' s Arch , with its chambers and passages ; the discoveries

in the Haram Area itself , in the Birket Isi'ael , ¦ at the south wall , on the Hill of Ophel , and , above all , at the south-east angle , were the letters have been found . It may be thought due to their successors that the Executive Committee should add a few words with regard to the future—as to the plan on -which

the society should proceed , and the objects it should seek to attain . It may be assumed that a large majority of our subscribers would agree iu regarding Jerusalem itself as the special object to which we should

direct our attention so long as important points in determining its topography are left obscure , and so long as circumstances render systematic excavation possible . And having conclusively shown that the work of excavation at Jerusalem can be

carried on , when intelligently directed , without arousing opposition—which until the arrival of Captain Wilson in Jerusalem in 1864 , had made many despair of the practicability of the work undertaken by our society—it would be most imprudent to relinquish the ground we now occupy , so long as funds are forthcoming to enable us to keep

our party together , and there remains work for them to do . Some other party might step in and rob our society of the fruits of our long toils in the past . The two principal points of interest are the site

of the Holy Sepulchre and of the Jewish Temple . It is not the duty of the Executive Committee to point out the bearing on this latter point of Bro . Warren's discoveries in the neigbourhood of the Haram , but none will depreciate their importance .

Bro . Warren's work will not require to be done again—it is a KT $ J /« I < = S &« . But it has served to bring out into even stronger relief the supreme importance of excavations within the Haram enclosure itself . Our past work has shown that certainty as to the extent northwards and eastwards of the Herod's Temple , and as to the site of the

Castle of Antonia , cannot be attained to by excavations on the outside of the Haram alone . Much has already been done by Captain Wilson and Bro . Warren ; by Dr . Barclay , Messrs . Catherwood , Arundel , and others , in determining the character

of the ground and of the remains within the Haram , both above and below the present surface ; but it is only necessary to refer to the literature of the subject , deducing from the same premises widely different conclusions , to show that the

information now accessible to us is very incomplete . The fortunate accident of the falling in of the roof of an old vault in heavy rain , and the yet more fortunate circumstance of there being a person at hand competent to turn the accident to the best

account , has pointed out one part of the ground where further exploration promises most important results .

There are other points within the Haram Area itself ; the reputed passage , for instance , under the cave of the Kubbet Es Sakhra , and the character of the substructures of the Mosque El Aksa and its appurtenances on either side of the

double passage . Here Bro . Warren ' s addition to M . de Sauley ' s discoveries in the fact that the double passage has cut through , and is therefore latter than , other works , only serves to whet our curiosity as to the extent and character of that former work , and as to its author .

It would be interesting to ascertain whether Bro . Warren ' s conjecture as to the existence of a lower tier of vaults under . the well-known vaults at the south-east angle of the Haram be correct . The substructions of the Mosque El Burak re-