stands on the summit of one of the largest mounds

opposite to Mosul.

Dr. LAYARD, the enterprising and successful fellow labourer of M. BOTTA, says, while justly acknowledging the disinterested and liberal conduct of that gentleman towards himself; "to him is due the honor of having found the first Assyrian monument.”*

The following letters were originally published by M. JULES MOHL in "Le Journal Asiatique" (a Paris periodical, exclusively devoted to Eastern literature) during the years 1843-44.

It is a source of much regret that the whole of these most interesting discoveries have not been issued in a form more accessible to the general reader. Few persons possess sufficient means to purchase the magnificent work, now in progress, by M. M. BOTTA and FLANDIN, -"Monument de Ninive,"

completed in 90 parts, at 20 francs each.

to be

*At Khorsabad.-"This word is probably an abbreviation of Khostau-abad, the abode of Khosroes. From their vicinity to the Kurdish mountains, many villages in this part of Assyria have Persian names." Note to Layard's "Nineveh," Vol. I., page 11.

M. BOTTA's measurements have not been altered in the translation. The mètre is equal to 3 English feet, 281 decimal parts. The French foot corresponds with 1 English foot, 066 decimal parts.

The translator is fully sensible of many defects with regard to forms of expression; the chief object in view being a desire to convey M. BOTTA's true meaning, and to change the construction of the sentences as seldom as the difference between the French and

English languages would allow.

BALLINCOLLIG,

March, 1850.

You are aware that for some time past I have been making excavations in the neighbourhood of Nineveh, in hopes of discovering some remains of monuments, or inscriptions, which, by multiplying the means of comparison, might prove useful towards deciphering those written in cuneiform characters that are now unintelligible. During a lengthened

* M. BOTTA sent me some time ago, the results of certain excavations he had undertaken within the compass of Nineveh, and which had furnished him with cuneiform inscriptions both on brick and stone; I was on the point of publishing them with extracts from his letters, when I received the news of his splendid discovery at Khorsabad. This event I hesitated not an instant to proclaim, determining to make known the inscriptions found at Nineveh at a

B

period, works have been continued under my guidance, in the great mound adjoining that whereon is built the village of Niniouah; but, tired of finding merely bricks and worthless fragments, I removed my labourers to an adjacent village-Khorsabad; from whence bricks had been brought to me bearing cuneiform inscriptions. In this place I have had greater success, and my workmen have found the remains of a monument, very remarkable for the number and character of the sculptures adorning it. I enclose you a brief description of all that has come to light

later period. I reproduced M. BOTTA's drawings, without allowing myself to correct them in the slightest degree, and I have no doubt my readers will be of opinion that this was the best plan to pursue. These are almost the only Assyrian sculptures known at the present day, and the information that may be drawn from them, particularly by comparison with those of Persepolis, is extremely important. M. Le Comte Duchâtel, Minister of the Interior, and M. Villemain, Minister of Public Instruction, have obligingly taken measures which will enable M. BOTTA to continue his researches, and transmit to France all those sculptures whose condition will admit of removal; and here I must entreat M. M. Cavé, Vitet, Lenormant and Letronne to allow me to thank them, in the name of M. BOTTA, for the interest they have manifested to preserve these antiquities. At the moment of publication, I received a second letter from M. BOTTA, dated 2nd May, accompanied by drawings still more curious, and by new inscriptions. I would gladly have added them now, but time has failed me for executing the plates; they shall not be long delayed.-J. MOHL.