mosaic floor to a height of 20 feet, there is, about 6 feet above the floor, a watercourse formed of cement, running north and south at right angles to the line of the church and the other buildings, which must have belonged to a much later period.  In fact—­and this is an interesting circumstance—­the mosaic pavement appears to extend under and beyond this canal and the mass of debris which is yet to be removed.

In the northwest corner of the room, where the mosaic floor is found, very near the angle (already mentioned) of the rock-cut channel, there is a tomb about 6 feet below the surface or level of the floor.  The tomb is 10 feet long and 9 feet wide, and is entered by a doorway 26 inches wide, which is well built, and in the sides of which are grooves for a door to slide up and down.  On the wall of the tomb at the east end there is a raised Greek cross, 22 inches long and 13 inches wide.  One cannot stand erect in its highest part, but it is to be considered that the loculi are two-thirds full of debris, composed chiefly of decayed bones and bits of glass.  Those in charge of the excavations have not, up to the present time, allowed the tombs to be cleared out.  The loculi are 2 feet in depth.

What Captain Conder speaks of as “vaults north of the church,” turn out to be the tops of houses.  They are four in number, each 75 feet long by 28 feet wide, and faced the street.  They were divided (one or two of them at least) into apartments by means of arches.  The lower courses of the walls, to the height of several feet, are of squared stones, while the upper portions and the roofs are of rubble work, which was covered with a heavy coating of plaster.  The threshold of one has been exposed, which is 6 feet in the clear, and the sides of the doorway show excellent work.

Among the ruins there are two sections of marble columns, each 33 inches in diameter.  Three large cisterns have been found, two of which were nearly full of water; the mouths of these, which were closed, were many feet below the surface of the ground before the excavations began, hence no one knows how old the water in them may be.  Some of the slabs with which the church was paved were 6 feet long by 21/2 feet wide.  In the church two pieces of cornice were found, each 8 feet in length.  One is entire and quite plain, while the other is broken in the middle.  It is upon this that the figures of Christ and his twelve apostles were painted.  They can still be traced, although exposure has nearly obliterated the colors.  Pottery and a considerable quantity of broken glass have been found and some small articles in marble of no great value.  The top of a certain block of marble has been formed into a basin, and a hole drilled the entire length of the block for the water to run off.