ards have been preserved, enough to show that
the work was extremely beautiful. The colored tracings resemble those in
the church on the Mount of Olives, and on one side are the large Greek
letters [Theta][epsilon][omicron][nu]. North of this mosaic floor, and
of the main building which joins it, and running alongside of both,
there is a watercourse or channel cut in the solid rock, which has been
leveled to accommodate the buildings above. This can be traced in an
east and west line for a distance of 37 feet; it is 2 feet 3 inches
deep, 20 inches wide at the top and 12 at the bottom. From about the
middle of the mosaic floor this channel turns a right angle and runs 20
feet or more to the north; it is possible that it led _from_ the north,
and at the point indicated turned a right angle and ran to the west.
Piles of stones and _debris_ prevent us at present from deciding as to
the length of the channel or where it comes from. In the bank of
_debris_, which rises on the east side of the mosaic floor to a height
of 20 feet, there is, about 6 feet above the floor, a watercourse formed
of cement, running north and south at right angles to the line of the
church and the other buildings, which must have belonged to a much later
period. In fact--and this is an interesting circumstance--the mosaic
pavement appears to extend under and beyond this canal and the mass of
_debris_ which is yet to be removed.

In the northwest corner of the room, where the mosaic floor is found,
very near the angle (already mentioned) of the rock-cut channel, there
is a tomb about 6 feet below the surface or level of the floor. The tomb
is 10 feet long and 9 feet wide, and is entered by a doorway 26 inches
wide, which is well built, and in the sides of which are grooves for a
door to slide up and down. On the wall of the tomb at the east end there
is a raised Greek cross, 22 inches long and 13 inches wide. One cannot
stand erect in its highest part, but it is to be considered that the
loculi are two-thirds full of _debris_, composed chiefly of decayed
bones and bits of glass. Those in charge of the excavations have not, up
to the present time, allowed the tombs to be cleared out. The loculi are
2 feet in depth.

What Captain Conder speaks of as "vaults north of the church," turn out
to be the tops of houses. They are four in number, each 75 feet long by
28 feet wide, and faced the street. They were divided (one or two of
them at least) into apartme