lful
draughtsmen of our time, see the biographical notice of M. de
Girardot:--_Felix Thomas, grand Prix de Rome Architecte, Peintre, Graveur,
Sculpteur_ (Nantes, 1875, 8vo.).

[199] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. pp. 249-269.

[200] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. pp. 254-255.

[201] _Ibid._ p. 246.

[202] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. p. 264.

[203] _Ibid._ p. 265. RICH made similar observations at Bagdad. He noticed
that the masons could mount on the vault a few minutes after each course
was completed (_Narrative of a Journey to the Site of Babylon_).

[204] M. A. CHOISY, well known by his Essays on _L'Art de batir chez les
Romains_, shows that the same method was constantly used by the Byzantine
architects. See his _Note sur la Construction des Voutes sans cintrage
pendant la Periode byzantine_ (_Annales des Ponts et Chausees_, 1876,
second period, vol. xii.). See also Mr. FERGUSSON'S account of the erection
of a huge stone dome without centering of any kind, by an illiterate
Maltese builder, at Mousta, near Valetta (_Handbook of Architecture_,
Second Edition, vol. iv. p. 34).--ED.

[205] STRABO, xvi. i. 5, Hoi oikoi kamarotoi pantes dia ten axulian.

[206] For a description of these buildings see FLANDIN and COSTE, _Voyage
en Perse, Perse ancienne, Text_, pp. 24-27, and 41-43 (6 vols. folio, no
date. The voyage in question took place in 1841 and 1842).

[207] Brick played, at least, by far the most important part in their
construction. The domes and arcades were of well-burnt brick; the straight
walls were often built of broken stone, when it was to be had in the
neighbourhood. At Ctesiphon, on the other hand, the great building known as
the _Takht-i-Khosrou_ is entirely of brick.

[208] See M. AUGUSTE CHOISY'S _Note sur la Construction des Voutes_, &c. p.
14. This exact and penetrating critic shares our belief in these relations
between the Chaldaean east and Roman Asia.

[209] _Note sur la Construction des Voutes sans cintrage_, p. 12.

[210] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. pp. 266-267.

[211] As M. CHOISY remarks (_L'Art de batir chez les Romains_, p. 80), each
horizontal course, being in the form of a ring, would have no tendency to
collapse inwards, and a dome circular on plan would demand some means for
keeping its shape true rather than a resisting skeleton.

[212] _Ninive_, vol. i. p. 131.

[213] In both the examples here reproduced the sculptor has indicated the
cords by which the canvas walls were kept in place. W