to form artificial eminences, on which to build a fortress for his soldiers, a temple for his gods, or a palace for himself. These noble edifices occupied a commanding position above the plain, and were seen from afar. Had the Assyrians dwelt in a country as rich in stone, granite, and marble, as India or Egypt, they would have equalled, if not excelled, the people of those lands in the extent, beauty, and magnificence of their palaces, temples, and monuments. Without those advantages, however, they found on the spot materials that answered their purpose, and which demanded little labour and less skill. Clay was at hand in abundance, and when moistened with water and mixed with a little sand, chopped straw, or broken reeds, became very tenacious and firmly bound together. These they wrought into tiles or bricks, on which was usually stamped the name of the king. Exposed for a few days to the heat of the sun, they became dry, and hard enough to be used in building. Nor was cement wanting. Bitumen bubbled up in springs, and formed "the slime pits," which yielded strong adhesive matter; so, like the earlier builders in the same region, "they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar," Gen. xi. 3; xiv. 10.

With these materials, it would seem, they first regularly and firmly built a solid compact mass,

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thirty or forty feet high, and which formed a terrace or basement on which to place the intended edifice. The walls of the palaces or temples which they reared on these stable platforms were built with the same materials, and usually carried up to about fifteen feet in height. In the low lands, between the eastern bank of the river Tigris and the hill country, there is an abundance of coarse alabaster, large masses of which rise to the surface and protrude through the soil; and so, at the cost of comparatively little labour, can be made ready by the mason for the chisel of the sculptor. This material is easily worked, and of an agreeable colour. The Assyrians lined the interior walls of their royal halls and sacred temples with slabs or panels of this soft marble, and carved upon them illustrations of their national history, and of the pursuits and triumphs of their warrior kings. Groups of figures were finely executed in low relief, and were also covered with long inscriptions, beautifully chiselled, in the Assyrian character. The clay walls were carried up much higher than these sculptured slabs, to support the roof, and were painted in bright colours with figures and ornaments. When, therefore, fire or decay destroyed the roof, and the sun-dried bricks were exposed to the action of heavy rains, the upper walls of clay became soft and subsided, so that these precious

works of art were buried beneath the masses of almost plastic soil that now formed the ruin. The dust and sand from the wilderness, and the periodical decay of the grass and wild herbage that overgrew the rubbish, soon formed together a layer of soil which completed the covering. Thus did the hand of Divine Providence entomb the proud memorials of this magnificent and mighty city, so that the very name of Nineveh was threatened with the same oblivion that had overthrown its greatness. "The cormorant and the bittern possessed it; the owl also and the raven dwelt in it; from generation to generation it was waste: none passed through it for ever." (Isaiah xxxiv. 11.)

We cannot wonder at the perplexity and awe which these gigantic mounds and mysterious ruins have occasioned to travellers, who were unable to discover, from their indefinite form and desolate aspect, whether they were the works of God or the achievements of man; nor can it excite surprise, that lovers of truth should have earnestly desired the leisure and the means for exploring these desert places, and to solve an historical problem of more than two thousand years.

As might be expected from their love of knowledge and of enterprise, and from the political and commercial relations of Great Britain with the eastern world, our countrymen have been amongst

the first to examine these desolate regions, and to bring to light their hidden treasures. Foremost in a goodly company of Englishmen interested in these researches must be named Austin Henry Layard, who, having completed in 1839-40 his wanderings through Syria and Asia Minor, "felt an irrepressible desire to penetrate the regions beyond the Euphrates, to which history and tradition point as the birthplace of the wisdom of the west." Two journeys brought him among the ruins on the banks of the Tigris, in 1840 and 1842, but it was not till the autumn of 1845 that he was able to enter upon the work of exploring their hidden chambers, and of pouring the light of day upon the mysterious gloom which hung over them.

In the interval, Monsieur Botta, the French consul at Mosul, commenced excavations at a place called Khorsabad, about five caravan hours to the north-east of the modern city, which is equal to fifteen English miles. Both these gentlemen have published to the world the fruits of their labours. Dr. Layard has issued two works: the one entitled "Nineveh and its Remains," in two octavo volumes, and the other in folio, entitled, "The Monuments of Nineveh, illustrated in one hundred plates." These have come from the press as a private enterprise, only receiving that support which the public a Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. p. 2.

may award. Not so the work of M. Botta, which is still in course of publication at Paris, under the authority and at the cost of the French nation. In size and style it is a truly splendid work, and affords a striking and somewhat humiliating contrast to that of our own countryman. It is strange that the authorities of France, whatever be the form of its government, should be so much in advance of our own, in all that relates to art, science, and letters, and the progress of intelligence and taste amongst the people.

These great works bring forth from their sepulchres, for the observation of the world, the oldest, the mightiest, and most civilized people of the ancient nations, exhibiting with graphic force their noble forms and costly attire, their domestic habits and their martial pursuits. They also preserve their historical inscriptions, which have been rescued from oblivion, though written in a character and a language, the significance and sounds of which have long since perished with the hands and lips which traced and uttered them. Learned inquiries have, however, commenced, which seem destined to decypher them, and to explain some of the most perplexed pages of ancient history. Of the issue we have no fears: sceptical theories will be confuted, and many statements of the Holy Scriptures will be confirmed. There is, indeed, so