The controverted questions about the topography of Jerusalem, which have since received such abundant elucidation, were all familiar to him, and were discussed with keenest interest when he met with any one who had either visited the sacred city, or made its historical details a subject of research. The scenes of the nativity, the crucifixion, and the holy sepulchre, of the agony in the garden, and the ascension, were all investigated by him with critical care. Dr. Porter furnishes the following memoranda of their conversation on those subjects:-- “He asked me my views as to the true site of Calvary. Was I convinced that it was not--or, as Robinson affirms, could not have been--within the compass of the present walls? If not, then where was it? He several times said, as if by way of suggestion, that it was either on the north side of the modern city, or to the east, on the brow of the Kidron Valley. ‘Did you ever consider,’ he asked me, ‘the statement of the evangelist to the effect that the women, as if afraid to approach, viewed the awful tragedy from afar?’ He was pleased when I suggested that possibly the true site of Calvary was not far south of St. Stephen’s Gate, where two public roads passed a short distance off--one leading north to Samaria and Galilee, the other east, over the Kidron and Olivet, to Jericho and the Jordan. ‘Yes,’ he said; ‘and the women would then have a clear view of the whole scene, from a safe distance, on the side of the Mount of Olives, beyond the deep and narrow valley.’”