MEDITERRANIAI FACTS

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 237, 22 September 1939, Page 1

MEDITERRANIAI FACTS

CATACOMBS OF ROME RiKMJiSCO VERY l.\ 1578 SEA. OE GALILEO FISH Air. Michael Glen no in his hunk ‘ 4 G real 3 i editerranean .Mysteries''. .deals . legends, myths, facts, dynasties of Egypt- Greece, .Curtilage, and other places. Among other matters in his chapter on Rome he deals with the disappearance of tig; catacombs.

“For nearly 800> years.” he write's, “the -Christian* lost- sight of the greatest work of their early ancestors, the holiest- places of Rome, the strange underground tomhs and churches sivcred with the memories and. acts of Christ’s followers from •the days of the Apostles. Th& Sickly Vine “No cataclysm caused their entrances to he sealed; no law forbade their access- the popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, and people of Home ‘just- forgot!’ It- seems incredible, yet it was so. “Then one day; ‘This vine grows but poorly.’ said the land-owner to his men. ‘The whole vineyard most be seen to; dug over, manured, enriched.’ “So the men set to work, ta dig deeply the land where theKyine-yard grew. It. was a. little outside the city of Home, towards the old Appian Way. “Suddenly ■ one man stepped hack the soil seemed! to he crumbling-.away-from him. He was'digging at a. hole! “I was thus that in 157$ the catacombs were re-discovered. Eicon 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 Eternal city, is liis 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. It- is a maze of underground streets and spaces extending in all to a length of at least 350 miles, placed end to end! they would traverse Italy.” Bible l Lands In his chapter on “Bible Lands” he gives some facts about the fish in the Sea of Galilee which are not generally known. Air. 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 tempera-

ture of the air, it is also watered from a- most fertile fountain. The people of the Juncl call it Capharuaum. 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 to Alexandria! ' / “Several streams flow into the Lake of Galilee, and the waters are drawn off hv the Hirer Jordan which flows out of it ; , these waters ultimately go into the Dead, Q r Salt -Sea, inhere They evaporate. This is so unique a phenomenon that naturally people have wondered about the mysterious' geography of these lands. What Avas thegeonnectien between Galilee and the galley of the- Nile? • * j..-Like Those of Nysnzaas it must have seemed that the fish of Capliarnaum Slid those of Alexandria were ..the same, he would have been more mystified had he known, as avo donow, that; the fish of Galileo are the same as those of Viktoria Nyanzal They are quite different from the fish found in any of the other rivers and streams which flow into the Mediterranean; while they are the same as those species found in the Nile and the Zambezi.

“What is the .explanation of this peculiar distribution of water-beasts Ls it possible that once there was a continuous water-course from the Zambesi through Egypt, across Suez and tip to the Lake of Galilee? Ur perhaps a chain of lakes, of Avhic-h Victoria Nvanza, Lake Tsana in Abyssinia, the Nile, the Dead Sea, and’ the Lake of Galieo are the isolated links? This mystery of the fish of Galilee is ouetif the problems still awaiting solution.” Mr. Glenne has a flair for the discovery of interesting- and unexpected things and a friendly eye for the romantic.