chamber, which is
forty-one feet long, eleven and a half feet wide, with an arched stone
roof, all of which, except the entrance, is below the surface. A large
basin cut in the floor collects the water from two springs. After rising
a foot in the basin, the water flows out into a channel more than six
hundred feet long leading down to the two upper pools. These great
reservoirs, bearing the name of Israel's wisest monarch, are still in a
good state of preservation, having been repaired in modern times.
The first one is three hundred and eighty feet long, two hundred and
twenty-nine feet wide at one end, two hundred and thirty feet wide at
the other, and twenty-five feet deep. The second pool is four hundred
and twenty-three feet long, one hundred and sixty feet wide at the upper
end, two hundred and fifty feet wide at the lower end, and thirty-nine
feet deep at that end. The third pool is the largest of all, having a
length of five hundred and eighty-two feet. The upper end is one hundred
and forty-eight feet wide, the lower end two hundred and seven feet,
and the depth at the lower end is fifty feet. The pools are about one
hundred and fifty feet apart, and have an aggregate area of six and a
quarter acres, with an average depth approaching thirty-eight feet. The
upper two received water from the sealed fountain, but the lower one was
supplied from an aqueduct leading up from a point more than three miles
to the south. The aqueduct from the sealed fountain leads past the
pools, and winds around the hills to Bethlehem and on to the Temple
Area, in Jerusalem. It is still in use as far as Bethlehem, and could be
put in repair and made serviceable for the whole distance. An offer
to do this was foolishly rejected by the Moslems in 1870. The only
habitation near the pools is an old khan, "intended as a stopping place
for caravans and as a station for soldiers to guard the road and the
pools." The two upper pools were empty when I saw them, but the third
one contained some water and a great number of frogs. As we went on to
Hebron we got a drink at "Philip's Well," the place where "the eunuch
was baptized," according to a tradition which lacks support by the
present appearance of the place.

Towards noon we entered the "valley of Eschol," from whence the spies
sent out by Moses carried the great cluster of grapes. (Num. 13:23.)
Before entering Hebron we turned aside and went up to Abraham's Oak, a
very old tree, but not old