Advantage was taken of a place where the rock rose eight or ten feet above the ground. It was cut so as to make a plain, smooth front. Then a little porch-like place is hewn out, not unlike that described at the sepulchre of the kings, the rock being left above for a cover. A door was then cut in, with some rich carving over it. This led into a large room, around which were a number of niches for depositing the dead. Doorways opened at the three sides to other rooms, and around these were niches--from these again to others. Passing down through a hole in the corner of the first large room, we found that there was one under it of nearly the same size. It was in a less finished state than any of the others. It is usually said, that there are seventy or seventy-two of those niches for corpses--the number of judges in the Jewish sanhedrim. We could not make out that number. We found sixty-eight or sixty-nine, if my memory be correct. Many ruins are to be seen on this plain to the north and north-west of the city. There are many olive-trees scattered over it; and wherever the massy, compact limestone rises to a height and size that will admit of it, you are almost sure to see tombs cut in it. There are several pools in the city. About half way from the Jaffa gate to the church of the Holy Sepulchre there is one of large dimensions; it is surrounded by houses, and is, I think, called the pool of Hezekiah. An aqueduct can in part be traced from the upper Gihon to the city in the direction of this pool, and possibly it may be the work of Hezekiah, mentioned in 2 Chron. xxxii. 30. "He stopped the upper water-course of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David." The pool of Bethesda lies near the gate of St. Stephen, and almost adjoining the large open square, on which the mosque of St. Omar now stands. It is now dry, and has not the appearance of often having water in it. It is a small place. Several arched places are shown at one end, as a part of the five porches mentioned in the Gospel. In truth, Jerusalem is badly, very badly supplied with water. Most of the houses have cisterns for rain water, but there is but little of good spring or running water. The fountain of Siloam, which is small and not good, is the only spring I have seen in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Water is brought in for the use of the mosque of St. Omar in pipes from the pools of Solomon, not I think for general use. The streets of Jerusalem are narrow and filthy; the houses have an old and weather-beaten appearance. There is one peculiarity about them which is rather singular. I saw something of it at Jaffa and at Rumla. The _dome roof_ is almost universal. To me it has a pretty appearance, and is a much better defence against rain than the flat roofs which are so universal at Beyroot, and all the towns and villages in the northern part of Syria.