Phenician alphabet was derived. As regards alphabets, the
explorer must study the early Phenician and the Hebrew, Samaritan and
Moabite, with the later Aramean branch of this alphabet, whence square
Hebrew is derived. He must also know the Ionian alphabet, whence Greek
and Roman characters arose, and the early Arab scripts--Palmyrene,
Nabathean and Sabean, whence are derived the Syriac, Cufic, Arabic and
Himyaritic alphabets.

As regards languages, the scholars of the last century had to deal
only with Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Coptic and Greek, but as the result
of exploration we now deal with the ancient Egyptian whence Coptic is
derived, and with various languages in cuneiform script, including the
Akkadian (resembling pure Turkish) and the allied dialects of Susa,
Media, Armenia and of the Hittites; the Assyrian, the earliest and
most elaborate of Semitic languages; and Aryan tongues, such as the
Persian, the Vannic and the Lycian.

The art and architecture of Western Asia also furnish much information
as to religious ideas, customs, dress and history, including inscribed
seals and amulets, early coins and gems. The explorer must also study
the remains of Greek, Roman, Arab and Crusader periods, in order to
distinguish these from the earlier remains of the Canaanites,
Phenicians, Hebrews, Egyptians and Assyrians, as well as the art of
the Jews and Gnostics about the Christian era, and the later pagan
structures down to the fourth century A.D.--Nature.

* * * * *

THE NEUTRAL USE OF CABLES.

Eleven submarine cables traverse the Atlantic between 60 and 40
degrees north latitude. Nine of these connect the Canadian provinces
and the United States with the territory of Great Britain; two (one
American, the other Anglo-American) connect France. Of these, seven
are largely owned, operated or controlled by American capital, while
all the others are under English control and management. There is but
one direct submarine cable connecting the territory of the United
States with the continent of Europe, and that is the cable owned and
operated by the Compagnie Francais Cables Telegraphiques, whose
termini are Brest, France, and Cape Cod, on the coast of
Massachusetts.

All these cables between 60 and 40 degrees north latitude, which unite
the United States with Europe, except the French cable, are under
American or English control, and have their termini in the territory
of Great B