Of the pools a very good description is given by Dr. Wilde (Narrative, ii. 4.20) At the extremity of the valley we arrived at three enormous tanks, sunk in the side of a sloping ground, and which from time immemorial have been considered to be the workmanship of Solomon ; and certainly they are well worthy the man to whom tradition has assigned their construction. These reservoirs are each upon a distinct level, one above the other, and are capable of holding an immense body of vvater. They are so constructed, both by conduits leading directly from one another, and by what may be termed anastomosing branches, that when the water in the upper one has reached to a certain height, the surplus flows off into the one below it, and so on into the third. These passages were ob structed and the whole of the cisterns were out of repair when we visited diem, so that there was hardly any water in the lowest, while the upper one was nearly full of good pure water. Small aqueducts lead from each of these cisterns to a main one that conducts the water to Jerusalem. They are all lined with a thick layer of hard whitish cement, and a flight of steps leads to the bottom of each, similar to some of those in the holy city. Where the lowest cistern joins the valley of Etham it is formed by an embankment of earth, and has a sluice to draw off the water occasionally. A short distance from the upper pool I descended into a narrow stone chamber, through which the water passes from the neighbouring spring on its course to the cisterns. This likewise has a traditionary tale to tell ; it is said to be the sealed fountain to which allusion is made in the 4th and 5th chapters of the Canticles. From an examination of this place, it appeared to nte that several springs empty themselves into these reservoirs, which are partly cut out of the solid rock, and partly built with masonry.
Nigh to the upper part there is a large square castle, apparently of an order of architecture be longing to the Christian era ; and in all probability so placed to guard these waterworks during the period of the holy war, for we know to what ex tremities some of the early crusaders were reduced from the different wells being poisoned by the enemy upon tbeir approach to Jerusalem.
'These fountains having been already described by Maundrell, Pococke, and others, I shall not dwell longer upon them, except to mention two circumstances, that it appears extraordinary they have not been adverted to by former travellers ; the first is, their great similarity to the fountains assigned to Solomon at Ras-el-Ain, near Tyre ; and the fact of both being natural springs, that were pent up so as to raise the water they contained to the level of its final destination. The second is, that these springs were originally collected into one stream, which must then have formed a consider able rivulet, and running through this valley, finally discharged its waters into the Asphaltine lake.
On our return to the city we followed the track of the aqueduct as far as Bethlehem, and afterwards crossed it in several places on the mad. It is very small, but the water runs in it with considerable rapidity, as we could perceive by the open places left in it here and there. From the very tortuous course that this conduit takes in following the dif ferent sinuosities of the ground, being sometimes above and sometimes beneath the surface, it is diffi cult to persuade oneself that it does not run up hill, as many have supposed. Finally, it crosse. over the valley of Rephaim, on a series of arches, to the north of the lower pool of Gihon, and wind ing round the southern horn of Zion, is lost to view in the ruins of the city. It very probably supplied the pool of Bethesda, after having tra versed a course of certainly not less than from thir teen to fifteen miles.' To this very clear description we have only to add the measurements of Dr. Robinson (b'ibl. Re searches,ii. 165):— Lower Pool.—Length, 582 feet ; breadth at the east end, 2o7 feet ; at the west end, 148 feet ; depth at the east end, 5o feet, of which 6 feet water (in the month of May).
Middle Poal.—Distance above lower pool, 248 feet ; length, 423 feet ; breadth at the east end, 25o feet ; at the west end, 16o feet ; depth at the east end, 39 feet, of which 14 feet water.
Upper Pod—Distance above middle pool, 16o feet ; length, 38o feet ; breadth at the east end, 236 feet ; at the west end, 229 feet ; depth at east end, 25 feet, of which 15 feet water.
Lord Nugent (Lands Classical and Sacred, ii. r 1) makes the pools a few feet larger each way, but admits that Robinson's measurement may pro bably have been more exact than his ovsm.
With respect to wells, their importance is very great, especially in the desert, where the means of forming them are deficient, as well as the supply of labour necessary for such undertakings, which, after all, are not always rewarded by the discovery of a supply of water. Hence in such situations,
and indeed in the settled countries also, the wells are of the utmost value, and the water in most cases is very frugally used (Num. xx. t7-19 ; Dent. ii. 6, 28 ; Job xxii. 7). It is, however, not merely the value of the well itself, but certain other considerations that explain the contests about wells which we find in the histories of Abraham and Isaac (Gen. xxi. 25-31 ; xxvi. 15-22). Here we see that the people of the country strenu ously contested the right of the patriarchs to the wells which they digged, and even went so far as to fill up again (instead of leaving open for their own use) the wells which Abraham had opened. The fact is, however, that, at the present day, to dig a well at a station remote from a supply of water, is the most difficult and arciuous operation which the chief of a tribe or clan undertakes ; and the benefits of such a work are so hig,hly appreci ated, that the property in the well becomes vested in him and in his heirs for ever. While his clan is encamped near it, no persons not belonging to it can draw water from the well without his leave. This right exists, however, only on the understand ing that the well is maintained in good condition ; for if it gets out of repair, or is choked up, and remains in this state for any length of time, the pro. perty in it lapses to the person or tribe by whom it is restored to a serviceable condition. This is the law of the desert ; but as its application to the scriptural questions respecting the property of wells is important, we may be allowed to introduce from the Pictorial Ilistory of Palestine (p. 61) a passage bearing strongly on the subject : Abraham had digged a well near his encampment, and of the use of this the servants' (probably the herdsmen) of Abimelech had violently deprived him. As men seldom act without some reason, or show of reason, which is deemed satisfactory to themselves, it may seem likely that Abimelech's people doubted the right of Abraham to apply the law of the desert to the common lands of an appropriated territory, and to claim the exclusive possession of the well he had dug in such a land. If their view had been just, however, it could only have entitled them to a share of the water, and not have justified them in assuming that exclusive possession which they de nied to the party at whose expense the benefit had been secured. But taking into account some trans actions of rather later date, we incline to think that the cause of all the differences about wells which we read of in the history of Abraham and of Isaac lay deeper than this account supposes, and must be sought in a country more sitnilarly circumstanced than the open deserts to that in which the patri arch was at this time sojourning. The best ana logy is offered in Persia. There all waste lands— that is, all lands which are uncultivable from want ing the means of irrigation—are called God's lands ;' and although the king is regarded as the general proprietor of the soil, such lands are free for any uses to which they can be applied ; and whoever procures the means of irrigation bedomes the proprietor of the land which he thus renders cultivable. Now, as among the immemorially ancient usages of the East, none are more ancient than those whic.h relate to the occupation of land, it is not too much to suppose that a similar usage to this existed in the time of Abraham ; and if so, it is easy to conclude that the anxiety of the Philis tines about the wells dug by Abmham arose from the apprehension that by the formation of such wells he would be understood to create a lien on the lands in which they lay, and would acquire an indefeasible right of occupation, or rather of pos session ; and it might seem to them inconvenient that so powerful a clan should acquire such a right in the soil of so small a territory as that which be longed to them. Hence their care, when Abraham afterwards left their part of the country, to fill up the wells which he had digged ; and hence also the renewed and more bitter strife with Isaac when he, on arriving tbere, proceeded to clear out those wells and to dig new ones himself. That Isaac also pursued cultivation to some extent in the lands for which he had thus secured the means of irriga tion, is a remarkable corroboration of the view we now take, as he certainly might, in this way, but we know not how he could otherwise, acquire such a proprietary right as could alone entitle him to zultivate the soil.