Sei'TSMBER 2f, t893] 



NA TURE 



509 



having takeo place in England or elsewhere. I am the only 

 explorer, after M. Botta and Sir Henry Layard, who discovered 

 "Assyrian slabs," or bas-reliefs, but that was thirty-eight 

 ■j0.r% ago ; and as there have been no sculptured slabs dis- 

 covered in Babylonia, it is difficult to know what is to be under- 

 stood by such an assertion. I do certainly agree with you that 

 the matter ought not to be allowed to rest, but thit the public 

 should insist upon a thorough examination into the matter. 



20. In conclusion, I must touch upon one more point, which 

 appeared near the end of the criticism under discussion, about 

 the duty of public servants to their superiors. Vou say, 

 " With the terror of the decision in this case before them, 

 all members of the public service will be in duly bound to con- 

 sider whether they are able to afford the expenses of an action 

 at law, and the enormous costs which follow in its train, before 

 ihey report unpleasant truths to their superiors." 



21. It will be indeed a sad day for an old public servant, 

 who has spent the best part of his life in the service of his 

 adopted country, and held with undiminished confidence import- 

 ant appointments of trust under the Crown, to be debarred from 

 obtaining justice elsewhere when it is denied him iiy the depart- 

 ment under which he served with honour, credit, and success 

 for many a y;ar, when his character is unjustifiably assailed. 



6 Gloucester Walk, Kensington, W. H. Rassam. 



[We are much surprised that Mr. Rassam has taken our article 

 as personal to himself, as we dealt with the thefts in question 

 only from a public point of view, and they might have happened, 

 we suppose, if .\Ir. Rassam had never existed. 



We make the following comments on some of his para- 

 graphs :^ 



Para. 4. We were not aware that Mr. Rassam had been 

 appealing for a Court of Inquiry. There is no doubt that cause 

 has been shown for a Treasury inquiry in the interests of the 

 public and future explorers, and we hope it will be pressed for. 



Paia. 6. It was no part of our duty to sift the evidence. 

 The point is that evidence was given (see Pall Mall Gazette, 

 June 30). Did not the British Museum accountant go into 

 ihe witness-box to state the amounts paid for tablets? and 

 was not the evidence dispensed with because Dr. Budge's 

 " vague " evidence was accepted as sufficient ? 



Paras. 7 nWS. We referred to the evidence given in Court. 

 What else could we do? It was not disproved in Court, or we 

 should have said so. 



Para. 9. This is a statement with which only the Trustees of 

 Ihe British Museum can deal. We, of course, are bound to 

 accept Mr. Rassam's statement as he makes it. 



Para. 10. We do not quite seize the point of Mr. Rassam's 

 remark here. The statement as to the greater value of the 

 tablets not received from him was made by the defendant ; it is 

 not ours. 



Paras. II and \2. Wecanonlyrepeat thatthepublicisinterested 

 in knowing that of 134,003 pieces of inscribed clay sent home 

 from Babylonia— it really does not matter by whom, 125,000 

 have been termed rubbish by Sir H. Rawlinson one of the 

 trustees, the principal librarian, and the present keeper of 

 the collection. It was not necessary to refer to any subordinate 

 official, or to point out the singular fact that he gave evidence 

 contrary to that of three of his official superiors. 



Para. 13. We quite agree that it is most startling to hear 

 that, in Sir Meniy Rawlinson's opinion, so much of what 

 Mr. Rassam sent home was rubbish. We presume that Mr. 

 Kas.sam was startled when Sir Henry Rawlinson's deposition 

 was read in Court ; that is the reason, perhaps, that he forgot 

 il, as he appears to have done. 



Para. 15. Dr. Budge's reports could not be revealed by us 

 because we do not possess them, and have never seen them 

 All the facts stated were given in evidence to which alone we 

 professed to refer. 



Para. 1 7. Here we cordially agree with Mr. Rassam ; as 

 before stated, in our opinion a Treasury inquiry into the ex- 



j penditure of the public funds on, and the method of carrying 

 out, excavations in the region in question since, say, iSifi 



! IS most desirable. 



I Paras 18 and 19. The article was not written by an expert, 

 and perhaps the word "bas-relief" would have been better 



[than slab. But there is no doubt about what we mean 

 hurrays "Handbook to Dorsetshire" informs us that at 



iCanlord Hall " a gallery connected with the house by a cloister 



;is devoted to a .series of Assyrian sculptures brought from 



NO. 1247, VOL. 48] 



Nineveh." Tt>ese sculptures — not to call them slabs — are de- 

 scribed as "winged lions and bulls, bis-reliefs, &c., similar to 

 those in the British Museum." Now, if there are many such 

 galleries in England, and the objects were obtained at a low 

 price, the wh )le question of excavation at the public expense 

 is raised. — Ed. Nature.] 



Bishop's Ring. 



Bishop's Rr^c still continues very conspicuous about sunset 

 more so than it was for a long time previous to last November, 

 though not ST much so as at the end of 1883. It is evident 

 there must hive been an ad lition of sona kind to the dust of 

 our atmosphere last Nivembsr, a considerable: part of which 

 yet remains. The liijht-coloured dust wisps re ippeared faintly 

 after the date (.\p-il 10) of my letter (p. 582), but have now 

 entirely disappea'ed again (I have not seen tham since July 20) ; 

 the texture of the sky in the ring being perfectly smooth lately. 

 I have not seen any o'her pecaliir sunset phetiomena of late, 

 though Senor Arcimii (Di.-ector of the Miieorological Institute) 

 tells me thesun-ets are ve^-y b.-illiant at Madrid. He says he 

 is satisfied th.tt Bishop's Rin» did n)t exist in Spain before the 

 Krakatoa eruption ; and he agrees with me that it has never 

 since entirely disappeared about sunset. 



Sunderland, September 11. T. W. BACKHOUSE. 



Spring and Autumn of 1893. 



As the peculiarities of this season are receiving attention in 

 your pages, the following notes of things in this part of England 

 may perhaps interest some of your readers. 



On March 25 the following fljwers were in bloom : — 



H.izel (nearly over). 



Larch. 



Celandine. 



Cuckoo fljwer. 



Star-wort. 



Broom. 



Peach. 



Gooseberry. 



Currant. 



Willow (nearly over). 



Cherry. 



At the sime date, the elm had been in flower for weeks ; the 

 ash was in full bud ; one or two sycamores in leaf ; chestnuts in 

 early leaf, and showing flower buds. Thehelibore hal been out 

 long ago; hyacinths were beginning to fl jwer ; a few pear buds 

 had burst ; the elmi and hawthorns had shown green for several 

 days. Butterflies had been seen for several days. 



The early heat did not, I suspsct, suit all our spring flowers. 

 I saw scarcely anything this year of two of our wall-plants which 

 are usually abundant— ihe Drabx vernx and the Sa.xifraga 

 tridactyliles. 



On March 27 bluebells were found in flower. 



The state of things now on September 12 is as curious. 



The wild roses (both Rjsa canina and arvensis) are again 

 flowering in the hedges — in some cases in great profusion ; there 

 are now, or a few days a^o have been, in blossom the following ; 



Apple. Glastonbury thorn. 



Pear. Kerria. 



Holly. Wild strawberry. 



Buberis Darwini. Dog violets. 



Rhododendron. 

 Some of the autumn flowers appear to me to have suffered 

 from the he.at and, perhaps, the drought. I hive not seen the 

 Spiranthes autumnalis, usually q'lite abundant here ; and the 

 Cokhicum autumnaU has been far less abundant than usuai. 

 Some garden bulbs have probably suffered in the same way. 



I may add that wasps have been in extraordinary numbers ; 

 and that we have found two or three of the nests of the Uee- 

 wasp similar to the one depicted in your pap;r on the 7th inst. 

 Failand, near Bristol, September 12. Edvv. Fry. 



Adoxa. 

 Golden Saxifrage. 

 Speedwell. 

 Wood Sorrel. 

 Snowdrop. 

 Crocus (nearly over). 

 Grape-hyacinth. 

 Wood anemone. 

 Primrose. 



Violet (the white, nearly 

 over). 



NOTES. 

 Mr. W. Savii.i.e-Kext, at present engaged as Com- 

 missioner of Fisheries to the Government of Western 

 Australia, has shipped to Lin Ion a large collection of the 



