n the British Museum.

[63] It was visited under the best conditions, and has been best described
by W. KENNETH LOFTUS who was in it from 1849 to 1852. Attached as geologist
to the English mission, commanded by Colonel, afterwards General Sir
Fenwick Williams of Kars, which was charged with the delimitation of the
Turco-Persian frontier, he was accompanied by sufficient escorts and could
stay wherever he pleased. He was an ardent traveller and excellent
observer, and science experienced a real loss in his death. The only work
which he has left behind him may still be read with pleasure and profit,
namely, _Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana, with an Account of
Excavations at Warka, the "Ereich" of Nimrod, and Shush, "Shushan the
palace" of Esther_, 8vo, London: 1857. The articles contributed by J. E.
TAYLOR, English vice-consul at Bassorah, to vol. xv. of the _Journal of the
Asiatic Society_ (1855), may also be read with advantage. He passed over
the same ground, and also made excavations at certain points in Lower
Chaldaea which were passed over by Mr. Loftus. Finally, M. de Sarzec, the
French consul at Bassorah, to whom we owe the curious series of Chaldaean
objects which have lately increased the riches of the Louvre, was enabled
to explore the same region through the friendship of a powerful Arab chief.
It is much to be desired that he should give us a complete account of his
sojourn and of the searches he carried on.

[64] LENORMANT, _Manuel de l'Histoire ancienne_, vol. ii. p. 30.

[65] J. MENANT, _Inscriptions de Hammourabi, Roi de Babylone_; 1863, Paris.
These inscriptions are the oldest documents in phonetic character that have
come down to us. See OPPERT, _Expedition scientifique_, vol. i. p. 267.

[66] KER PORTER, _Travels in Georgia, Persia_, etc., 4to., vol. ii. p. 390.
LAYARD, _Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon_, p. 535.
"Alexander, after he had transferred the seat of his empire to the east, so
fully understood the importance of these great works that he ordered them
to be cleansed and repaired and superintended the work in person, steering
his boat with his own hands through the channels."

[67] This palace was the one called the _North-western Palace_.

[68] LAYARD, _The Monuments of Nineveh, from Drawings made on the spot,
Illustrated in one Hundred Plates_ (large folio, London: 1849), plates
53-56.

[69] It is now called the _Central Palace at Nimroud_.

[70] The chief