In 1881 Major Conder, aided by Lieutenant Mantell, was sent out to begin the systematic survey of Eastern Palestine. The country at that time was very much disturbed; but the party crossed the Jordan into Moab, and for two anxious months laboured at very high pressure. After measuring a base-line and connecting their triangulation with that west of the river, they worked over 500 square miles in detail. And even after attention was drawn to their presence they were able to extend their work over a considerable area, and they came back from the desert with their hands full of valuable results. One of the most remarkable discoveries was the abundance of menhirs, dolmens, and stone-circles. They are numbered by hundreds, whereas in Judea and Samaria there are none, and in Galilee only half a dozen. Dr Merrill and Herr Schumacher found them abundant also in the Jaulan and the rest of the Hauran. According to Herr Schumacher, an examination of many specimens in Eastern Jaulan makes it apparent (1) that the dolmens are always built on circular terraces, which elevate them about 3 feet above the ground; (2) that in most cases they are formed by six upright and two covering slabs; (3) that the major axes of the dolmens all run east and west; (4) that the western end of the dolmens is broader than the eastern; (5) that the western end is often distinguished by headings, one on each corner of the top slab; and (6) that they vary in size from 7 to 13 feet in length. He finds it difficult to avoid the conclusion that these dolmens were built originally as burial places. The covered chamber, elevated above the ground, and shut in by slabs, was the first beginning of a sarcophagus; and the body was laid facing the rising sun, with its head in the west. On the other hand Major Conder, who finds in Moab many rude stone monuments of a different kind, bids us remember that stones may be placed on end for more than one purpose. After examining seven hundred examples in Moab and Gilead, he has come to the conclusion that the sepulchral theory is often quite untenable, though we cannot deny that bodies were buried in such stone chambers sometimes. In many cases in Moab it was certain that no mound of earth had ever covered the stones; there was nothing but hard rock to be found, and sometimes the structure was not large enough to cover even the body of a child. We must turn to local superstitions in order fully to understand the use of trilithons and dolmens. Wild as are the legends, they preserve, in Conder’s opinion, what was once the religion of the dolmen-building tribes. After making measured drawings of about a hundred and fifty dolmens in Moab, it seemed to him that the purpose of the builders was to produce a flat table-like surface, which they perhaps used as an altar. True that the dolmens are often more numerous in a confined area than we should expect altars to be, but we must not forget the story of Balaam and Balak, in which seven altars are