sand and dust, which, blown over the plain during summer, soon fill up every hole and crevice. Although I had carefully examined the ground before starting, one of these holes had escaped my notice, and into it two wheels of the cart completely sank. The Arabs pulled and yelled in vain. The ropes broke, but the wheels refused to move. We tried every means to release them, but unsuccessfully. After working until dusk, we were obliged to give up the attempt. I left a party of Arabs to guard the cart and its contents, suspecting that some adventurous Bedouins, attracted by the ropes, and by the mats and felts, with which the sculpture was enveloped, might turn their steps toward the spot during the night. My suspicions did not prove unfounded; for I had scarcely got into bed before the whole village was thrown into commotion by the reports of fire-arms and the war-cry of the Jebours. Hastening to the scene of action, I found that a party of Arabs had fallen upon my workmen. They were beaten off, leaving behind them, however, their mark; for a ball struck and indented the side of the bull. I was anxious to learn who the authors of this wanton attack were, and had organized a scheme for taking summary vengeance. But they were discovered too late; for, anticipating punishment, they had struck their tents, and had moved off into the desert.

Next morning we succeeded in clearing away the earth, and in placing thick planks beneath the buried wheels. After a few efforts the cart moved forward amid the shouts of the Arabs; who, as was invariably their custom on such occasions, indulged, while pulling at the ropes, in the most outrageous antics. The procession was formed as on the previous day, and we dragged the bull triumphantly down to within a few hundred yards of the river. Here the wheels buried themselves in the sand, and it was night before we contrived, with the aid of planks and by increased exertions, to place the sculpture on the platform prepared to receive it, and from which it was to slide down on the raft. The tents of the Arabs, who encamped near the river, were pitched round the bull, until its com

N*

panion, the lion, should be brought down; and the two embarked together for Baghdad. The night was passed in renewed rejoicings, to celebrate the successful termination of our labors. On the following morning I rode to Mosul, to enjoy a few days' rest after my exertions.

The bull having thus been successfully transported to the banks of the river, preparations were made, on my return to Nimroud, for the removal of the second sculpture; and I ordered the trench, already opened for the passage of the bull to be continued to the entrance formed by the lions, or about eighty feet to the north.

My arrangements were completed by the middle of April. I determined to lower the lion at once on the cart, and not to drag it out of the mound over the rollers. This sculpture, during its descent, was supported in the same manner as the bull had been ; but, to avoid a second accident, I doubled the number of ropes and the coils of the cable. Enough earth was removed to bring the top of the cart to a level with the bottom of the lion. While clearing away the wall of unbaked bricks, I discovered two alabaster tablets, similar to those already described.* They bore the standard inscription, and had evidently been placed in the foundations of the palace: probably, as coins and similar tablets are now buried under edifices, to commemorate the period and object of their erection.

As the lion was cracked in more than one place, considerable care was required in lowering, and moving it. Both, however, were effected without accident. The Arabs assembled as they had done at the removal of the bull. Abd-ur-rahman and his horsemen rode over to the mound. We had the same shouting and the same festivities. The lion descended into the place I had prepared for it on the cart, and was easily dragged out of the ruins. It was two days in reaching the river, as the wheels sank more than once into the loose soil, and were with difficulty extricated. It was, however, at length placed by the side of

* Page 76.

the bull, on the banks of the Tigris, ready to proceed to Busrah, as soon as I could make the necessary arrangements for their embarkation.

The sculptures, which I had hitherto sent to Busrah, had been floated down the river on rafts, as far only as Baghdad, where they had been transferred to boats built by the natives for the lower part of the Tigris and Euphrates. These vessels were much too small and weak to carry either the lion or the bull; and, indeed, had they been large enough, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, in the absence of proper machinery, to lift such heavy masses into them. I resolved, therefore, to attempt the navigation of the lower, as well as of the upper, part of the river with rafts; and to embark the lion and bull at once for Busrah. The raftmen of Mosul, who are accustomed to descend the Tigris to Baghdad, but never venture further, declared the scheme to be impracticable, and refused to attempt it. Even my friends at Baghdad doubted of my success; principally, however, on the ground that the prej udices and customs of the natives were against me,—and every one knows how difficult it is to prevail upon Easterns to undertake any thing in opposition to their established habits. Such has been their nature for ages. As their fathers have done, so have they done after them, forgetting or omitting many things, but never adding or improving. As rafts meet with no insurmountable difficulties in descending, even from the mountainous districts of Diarbekir, to Baghdad, there was no good reason why they should not continue their voyage to Busrah. Obstructions might occur in the upper part of the river, which abounds in rapids, rocks, and shallows; but not in the lower, where there is depth of water, and nothing to impede the pas sage of large boats. The stream below Baghdad is sluggish, and the tide ascends nearly sixty miles above Busrah these were the only objections, and they merely affected the time to * be employed in the descent, and not its practicability.

It was impossible by the most convincing arguments, even though supported by the exhibition of a heap of coins, to pre