“Behold the excavation. Now this is the history of the Tunnel. While the excavators were still lifting up the Pick towards each other, and while there were yet three cubits to be broken through, the voice of one called to his neighbour, for there was an excess in the rock on the right. They rose up. They struck on the west of the excavation. They struck, each to meet the other, pick to pick. And there flowed the waters from their outlet to the Pool, for a thousand two hundred cubits, and . . . of a cubit was the height of the rock over the heads of the excavators.” From this it will appear that there were two working-parties, working from opposite ends, and the indefatigable explorers have actually discovered the spot where the “excess” in the rock occurred and where they probably met. Most people who have not got Palestine exploration on the brain will, however, be content to take their word for it without going to see for themselves. Still it cannot be denied that an engineering work, executed in the time of Solomon, and an inscription describing it, is of the greatest interest. The date of the inscription can be determined with tolerable accuracy by a comparison of the letters with those on the Moabite stone and other of the most ancient inscriptions known.
[5] RUSSIA IN PALESTINE.—The St. Petersburg correspondent of the _Daily News_ says, “In Palestine, the orthodox religion and Russian influence seem to be increasing. Some days ago ‘The Orthodox Palestine Society’ celebrated its anniversary. It was made known on this occasion that the society—which is protected by the government, and which has one of the emperor's uncles, the Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaievitch, as president—numbers already six hundred and fifteen members, and that its reserve capital amounts to about 90,000 roubles. The society has constructed a church at Nazareth, is constructing a church at Mudshile, and has bought a piece of ground at Jerusalem. The leaders of the Palestine Society assert that their researches have proved in ‘the most indubitable’ manner that Christ, on his way to Golgotha, ‘passed just over the ground which has been bought by the society.’ One of the society's tasks is to facilitate Russian pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The emperor has recently given his sanction to the establishment of branches of this society in all cities of the Russian Empire.”
