The plan adopted by the Survey party was one which guarded as far as possible against all mistakes. It is described by Major Conder in “Tent Work,” where he speaks as follows of his inquiries in the neighbourhood of Hebron. “My party now consisted of three non-commissioned officers; and Lieutenant Kitchener was expected to join me in about a month. We had with us eleven natives, including Habib the head man, a scribe, a second valet, two grooms, the cook (a villain who only sat and watched his boy cooking), two muleteers, and two Bashi-bazouks; the party was thus at its full strength composed of only sixteen persons, with nine horses and seven mules.... By night a guard was provided by the sheikh of the village. Four guides were hired, who received a shilling a day, a mule to ride, and breakfast. The information which they gave the Surveyors was written down from their mouths by the scribe, an intelligent young Damascene recommended by Mr Wright. Thus correctness, both of pronunciation and of locality, was ensured, and the names were checked by every means in our power. Besides obtaining names from the local guides, inquiry was made of peasants, and generally of several peasants separately. No leading questions were put, nor were either guides or peasants allowed to suppose that one name would be more acceptable than another. Such was the daily routine. The parties left by eight a.m. and returned by five p.m.; dinner was at sunset, and from about eight to eleven, or even until midnight, I studied, after the day’s work, the topography of the district. This labour was not unrewarded, for one might easily have passed over many places of interest had one not known the points to which Mr Grove and other scholars required special attention to be directed.” Fortunately in Palestine the ancient names retain their hold very tenaciously, and reassert themselves after all the efforts of conquerors to displace them. Thus the town of Bethshan (or Bethshean) which in Greek and Roman times became Scythopolis, is to-day again known to the natives as _Beisan_. _Tell-el-Kadi_, at the foot of Mount Hermon, signifies in Arabic the “heap of the Judge;” but in Hebrew the word for judge is _Dan_, and this is the mound of Dan, the northern extremity of the land whose length was measured “from Dan to Beersheba.” Shiloh is now called _Seilun_, and no site is more certain. Almost every important site retains its Biblical name. The pretentious titles, Eleutheropolis, Nicopolis, &c., have quite vanished, and the old native names of these cities, _Beth Gubrin_, _Emmaus_, &c., are those by which they are now again known. An important exception, however, is _Nablous_ (corrupted from Neapolis) for the ancient Shechem--a change which may perhaps be traced to Jewish hatred of the name of Shechem.