soon fall to atoms. Being no longer supported, the walls yield to the swelling of the ground;* the action of the sun reduces the surface to powder, and even now a considerable portion has disappeared. This is truly grievous, but I can devise no remedy, unless the whole, as I draw it, should be again filled up, and thus preserved for future investigation; this is my present purpose, since, everything considered, it will always be possible to make a fresh clearing, whilst, by leaving the walls uncovered, in three months not a vestige of them would remain.

E. BOTTA.

*M. BOTTA was careful, from the commencement, to support the uncovered sculptures by props; but during the long interruption to his excavations imposed upon him by the cupidity and malevolence of the last Pasha of Mosul, the props were stolen by the country people, and thus several bas-reliefs fell to pieces. The obstacles with which M. BOTTA has had to contend were infinitely greater and more numerous than could be imagined, judging merely from the letters I have published; at each step he has had to struggle against the cunning and spite of the Pasha, who on some occasions prohibited and on others allowed him to proceed, while secretly forbidding the inhabitants of the village to sell him their houses; at one time imprisoning and wishing to torture the workmen, in order to wring from them information regarding the treasures found (as he declared) by M. BOTTA; then writing complaints to Constantinople, asserting that M. BOTTA caused trenches to be made in the hill with design to erect a fortress, &c.

The heat has interrupted, for more than two months, my researches in the village of Khorsabad; and, although the clearings have been resumed, I can record but a small number of fresh discoveries. I should not even have paid this my latest visit to these excavations, but for my desire to finish drawing and transcribing the most exposed portions, fearing lest the first rains should completely

At present one difficulty alone remains, viz., the unwillingness of the Porte to suffer the disinterred marbles to be transported; but our government will surely ask and obtain a privilege that Turkey has never before refused; for, in truth, until the Louvre shall be embellished by a hall of Assyrian Sculptures, Europe cannot profit by the discovery of Khorsabad.-J. M.

annihilate them. I this day send you an exact plan of all that has been disinterred up to the present moment,* and, with infinite regret, I must inform you it will perhaps be the last. In a word, the Pasha of Mosul has forbidden the works to continue, and I am yet ignorant whether the proceedings of our Ambassador at Constantinople have had power to remove this unexpected obstacle.

As I imagined, the human headed bull situated at the extremity of wall XIX was not single; by following in the same direction, another and similar statue has come to light. These two Colossi are separated by a passage 2m. 40. wide, and they doubtless formed a most imposing and magnificent entrance. The passage is not yet entirely cleared; but nevertheless, one may perceive that these bulls are winged. A wing projects within the passage from the corresponding shoulder of each of them. The second, like the first, is placed in an angle, whereon was also found a winged figure with a bird's head, precisely the same as that of which I enclosed a drawing with my last letter. After this recess, the wall (xxxv) again runs eastward, like wall xix.

Hence doubtless, at that point was erected one

*Plate XXXII.

portal of the building, communicating with the large chamber formed by walls xx and xiv. In fact, after following this wall to the length of 10m 11°, one reaches its extremity, and there it turns towards the south, nearly on a line with the shoulder of the first colossus.

The opposite side of the large chamber opens, as I said in my last letter, into another passage (No. V), exactly facing the grand portal. The passage is 1m. 30° wide, and 4m long at its western end. Each partition returns at right angles; one eastward, the other westward. This passage is paved, like the rest, by a single flag-stone with inscriptions, but differing from the former in that the writing is divided into two halves, separated by a longitudinal band. It is much decayed, but still I could plainly perceive that the two parts of the inscription are traced in similar characters; those universally found at Khorsabad.

In all probability this last passage (No. V), after opening into a second chamber, had, in front, another entrance like that just described; indeed at more than 29m. distant from the angle of its western partition (XXX1) and on the same line, as far as the houses allow one to judge, we have discovered the upper portion of a third human headed bull; it is

turned northward, and, unquestionably,* like the preceding, made the angle of a portal leading into a passage which traversed the entire structure and communicated with the southern entrance.

This, Sir, is the knowledge I have acquired from the latest excavations, regarding the plan of this monument. I now proceed to offer you some new details relative to the bas-reliefs continuing to adorn its surface. With my last letter, I sent you a drawing of the western partition of passage No. V; the other is precisely similar. The personages are alike and have the same attitudes; only, that being also turned towards the south, they naturally present the contrary side of their figures, and thus some evident variation occurs in the arrangement.

I this day enclose you a sketch, which I consider extremely correct, of one of the lower bas-reliefs on wall xx. They all represent the same scene with

* This conjecture has since been confirmed; as I perceive, from a plan sent by M. FLANDIN, these portals with bulls formed the centre of two façades, north and south of the edifice. Besides, M. BOTTA, on the 18th of August, 1844, thus writes to me: "Another portal has also been found at 194m. from the nearest point of excavation; judge what remains to be done! Near this new entrance is a magnificent bas-relief; it represents a man stifling a lion in his arms."-J. M.

† See plate XXXIX.