original vaulting still remains, circular in form and constructed of blocks, built together without mortar; that belonging to the last pool on the east is the largest, from which the conduit starts which goes to the _castellum_[864], and thence to Jerusalem. We will now return to the first-mentioned conduit. I have already said that the aqueduct from the 'Sealed Fountain' discharges a portion of its waters into the round basin; another portion flows along a covered canal, visible on the surface, which runs along by the side of the three pools, supplying a fountain near the north-east corner of the first of them, and then emptying itself into the _castellum_ just mentioned. In case of too great a quantity of water flowing into the round basin, and being forced back by the first pool becoming full, the overplus is not lost, but escapes through a third aperture into a subterranean chamber, on the west of the basin, and almost united to it, where it joins the stream coming from a very deep spring (not before mentioned), whence it is conducted by a subterranean canal (whether this is artificial or natural I have not been able to decide) to the _castellum_ on the east of the lowest pool. This point I have proved by stopping up the supply of water from the other quarters; an experiment which was witnessed by M. de Barrère and M. E. Meshullam. Another spring also supplies the latter _castellum_, the stream from which, rising at a distance of about 750 feet, comes down the valley, and runs parallel to the east end of the lowest pool; this is called by the Arabs _Ain Atan_, and is the best water in Palestine, but is not very abundant, from the way in which the neighbourhood of the source has been cleared of trees. The above-named fountains are not all of those which formerly supported the gardens of Solomon and Jerusalem; two conduits from the south increased the supply; one of which came from the neighbourhood of Hebron (to the south of the village of _Halhul_), and flowed into the lowest pool: another, from the mountains near Etham, emptied itself into the first pool. The whole course of these conduits can be traced; but it is sad to see them becoming more and more ruinous every year, when, with little trouble and expense, they could be sufficiently repaired to be of immense benefit to the places through which they run. In case the three pools became full, and the great influx into the lower _castellum_ produced a flood, the water escaped by a canal, following the course of the valley, and flowed into two pools, at some distance apart, smaller than those above: there, no doubt, it was kept to irrigate the gardens below, which may be identified with the 'garden inclosed[865]' of Solomon. The important remains of buildings and pools which M. Meshullam has discovered and laid open, while bringing (most successfully) the ground under cultivation, are proofs of this point. The shape of the lower pools and