MEDITERRANEAN FACTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20042, 14 September 1939, Page 11

MEDITERRANEAN FACTS

CATACOMBS OF ROME RE-DISCOVERY IN 1578 SEA OF; GALILEE FISH Mr. Michael Glennc in his book “Great Mediterranean Mysteries deals with legends, myths, tacts, dynasties of Egypt, Greece, Carthage, and other places. Among other matters in his chapter on Rome he deals with the disappearance of the catacombs.

"For nearly 800 years,” he writes, “the Christians lost .sight of the greatest work of their early ancestors, the holiest places of Rome, the strange underground tombs and churches sacred with the memoi ics and acts of Christ’s followers from the days of the Apostles. The Sickly Vine

“No cataclysm caused their entrances to be scaled; no law forbade their access; the popes, caidinals, bishops, priests, and people ol Rome 'just forgot!’ It seems incredible,' yet it was so.

"Then one day; 'This vine grows but poorlv,’ said the land-owner to his men. ’’The whole vineyard must be seen to; dug over, manured, enriched.’

"So the men set to work to cug deeply the land where the vine-yard grew. It was a little outside the city of Rome, towards the old Appian "Suddenly one man stepped back: the soil seemed to be crumbling away from him. I-Ic was digging at a hole!

"It was thus that in 1578 the catacombs were re-discovered. Even then very little interest was taken for another 100 years, when their exploration was seriously undertaken. “In the bowels of the earth, running beneath the hills of the Eterrral city, is this vast labyrinth of galleries excavated from the different strata of rock. The passages and tombs are cut out at various levels, crossing and re-crossing under and above one another. II is a maze of underground streets and spaces extending in all to a length of at least 350 miles; placed end lo end they would traverse Italy.” Bible Lands

In his chapter on "Bible Lands" he gives some facts about the fish in the Sea of Galilee which are not generally known. Mr. Glenne writes: —

“Speaking of the Lake of Galilee Josephus, after describing the beauty of Genesareth, praising its fruitfulness in the most glowing language, says:—

“ ‘For besides the pleasant temperature of the air. it is also watered from a most fertile fountain. The people of the land call it Capharnnum. Some have thought it to be a vein of the Nile, because it produces the Coracin fish as well as that lake which is near lo Alexandria! “Several streams flow into the Lake of Galilee, and the waters arc drawn off by the River Jordan which flows out jof lit; these waters ultimately go into the Dead, or Salt Sea, where they evaporate. This is so unique a phenomenon that naturally people have wondered about the mysterious geography of these lands. What was tlie connection between Galilee and the valley of the Nile? Like Those of Nyanzn “But strange as it must have seemed to Josephus that the fish of Capharnaum and those of Alexandria were the same, he would have beermore mystified had tie known, as we do now, that the fish of Galilee arc the same as those of Victoria Nyanza! They are quite different from the fish found in any of the other rivers and streams which flow inlo the Mediterranean: while they are the same as those species found in the Nile and the Zambesi. "What is the explanation of this peculiar distribution of water-beasts? Is it possible that once (here was a continuous water-course from Ihc Zambesi through Egypt, across Suez and up to the Lake of Golileo? Or perhaps a chain of lakes, of which Victoria Nyanza, Lake Tsana m Abyssinia, the Nile, the Dead Sea. and the Lake of Galilee are the isolated links? This mystery of the fish of Galilee is one of the problems still awaiting solution.’’ Mr. Glenne has a flair for the discovery of interesting and unexpected things and a friendly eye lor the romanlie.