17 MAY 1902, Page 13

HEBRON.

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.")

SIR,—May I ask bow the age of terebinths affects the question of Abraham's oak (Spectator, April 26th) ? The present tree is an oak. Jerome informs us that the stump of this oak existed when he was a boy. It had apparently disappeared when he grew up. The site was quite different from that shown in the Middle Ages. Thamara is now Beit Ummar, about half-way from Hebron to Jerusalem. Hebron never was, and is not, on a hill. For references, please allow me to refer to my "Palestine Survey Memoirs," Vol. III., sheet 21.