into stages of 2000 cubits. Conder identifies the place in the neighbourhood of the convent of St Saba. At the required distance from Jerusalem is the great hill of El Muntâr, the highest point of a ridge of mountains running north and south. The rest of the ridge is called El Hadeidûn; and beside the ancient road from Jerusalem is a well called Sûk. From this high ridge the victim was yearly rolled down into the narrow valley beneath, at the entrance of the great desert, which first unfolded itself before the eyes of the messenger as he gained the summit half a mile beyond the well of Sûk. [Authorities and Sources:—Colonel Warren, Colonel Wilson, &c., in the Quarterly Statements, P. E. Fund. "Tent-Work in Palestine." Major Conder. "Sinai and Palestine." Dean Stanley.]
10. The Method of the Survey, and Incidents of the Work.
At the commencement of the Triangulation Survey a base line was measured, near Ramleh, on the Jaffa plain, and this was afterwards checked by a second line measured on the Plain of Esdraelon. The method of work employed is described by Major Conder, both in his "Tent Work" and in his volume called "Palestine." The camp, consisting of three or four tents, was pitched in some convenient central position, by a town or village. Thence the surveyors were able to ride 8 or 10 miles all round, and first visited a few of the highest hill-tops. As each was found satisfactory, or one near it preferred, they built great cairns of stones, 8 or 10 feet high, and white-washed them to make them more conspicuous. This work took about five days. When the points were chosen, five more days were consumed in revisiting them with the theodolite, which travelled in its box bound to the back of
