to hold in its place by
hooks, this part of the bas-relief illustrating the account in the Book
of Chronicles and in Josephus of the machine for battering walls,
instruments to cast stones, and grappling-irons made by Uzziah.

A cargo of sculptures had already been sent to England for the British
Museum, and by the middle of December a second was ready to be
dispatched on the river to Baghdad.

When the excavations were recommenced after Christmas eight chambers had
been discovered. There were now so many outlets and entrances that I had
no trouble in finding new chambers, one leading into another. By the end
of April I had uncovered almost the whole building, and had opened
twenty-eight halls and rooms cased with alabaster slabs.

The colossal figure of a woman with four wings, carrying a garland, now
in the British Museum, was discovered in a chamber on the south side of
the palace, as was also the fine bas-relief of the king leaning on a
wand, one of the best-preserved and most highly finished specimens of
Assyrian sculpture in the national collection.

In the centre of the palace was a great hall, or rather court, for it
had probably been without a roof and open to the air, with entrances on
the four sides, each formed by colossal human-headed lions and bulls. To
the south of this hall was a cluster of small chambers, opening into
each other. At the entrance to one of them were two winged human figures
wearing garlands, and carrying a wild goat and an ear of corn.

In another chamber were discovered a number of beautiful ivory
ornaments, now in the British Museum. On two slabs, forming an entrance
to a small chamber in this part of the building, some inscriptions
containing the name of Sargon, the king who built the Khorsabad palace.
They had been cut above the standard inscription, to which they were
evidently posterior.

_IV.--Kouyunjik_

Having finished my work at Nimroud, I turned my attention to Kouyunjik.
The term means in Turkish "the little sheep." The great mount is
situated on the plain near the junction of the Khausser and the Tigris,
the former winding round its base and then making its way into the great
stream.

The French consul had carried on desultory excavations some years at
Kouyunjik, without finding any traces of buildings. I set my workmen
commencing operations by the proper method of digging deep trenches. One
morning, as I was at Mosul, two Arab women came to me and announced that