The American School in Palestine.

The American School for the study of Archaeology in Palestine has been started at Jerusalem. Professor C. C. Torrey, of the department of Semitic in Yale University, has gone as director of the school for the current year, and work has begun under his charge. At a recent joint meeting of the Oriental Society and the American Society for Biblical Literature and Exegesis, by which the Palestine school was founded, Dr. James B. Nies was authorized to try to raise by subscription $200,000 to be added to the present very small endowment fund of the school. Dr. Nies in a tour covering a year, examined the whole territory of the Holy Land, and his search resulted in the surprising discovery that in Palestine, which is archaeologically the most interesting region of the world, almost no excavations and no organized research are being conducted. The surveys of the British Palestine Exploration Fund, though carefully and thoroughly carried out, have covered but a very small part of the territory, and the valuable archaeological relics scatte red over the rest of it are being destroyed or carried away by business companies or by the Arab traders. The country has been the scene of some of the greatest events and periods of the world's history, and traces and records of these periods, now being obliterated, could be brought to light by careful scientific search. Caverns hewn in the rock and various stone implements of a prehistoric age have been discovered, and relics are often found of the period of the rule over Palestine of the Babylonians and Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Philistines, the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Crusaders, and the Turks.

The American School has been founded to teach men interested in Semitic studies the history, geography, language and archaeology of Palestine, and to carry out systematic excavations. Excavations, as distinguished from mere digging for relics, are exceedingly careful and thorough, and are correspondingly expensive; this expense is augmented by the hurry in the work necessitated by the brief permits granted by the Turkish authorities. The men interested in the Palestine School hope to raise an endowment fund which will yield an annual income of $10,000, and thus make effective work by the school possible.

A fellowship in the school will shortly be offered for a competitive examination among men who have taken from reputable colleges the degree of A.B., and have acquired proficiency in Greek and Latin and a working knowledge of German, French, and Hebrew.