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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[July, 



■was jii'lccd to no purpose to riiise (urrcts in fihiccs so nafuiiilly forti- 

 fied. ISptween tlif wall and the booses there was a space left round 

 the c\(y of two Inindred feet. That tlie work might be th^r more 

 speedily dispalcdied, to each of her friends was allotted a furlong, with 

 an allowance of all exprnscs necessary for their several parts, and 

 commanded all should be finished in a year's time; which being dili- 

 gently perfected to the queen's approbation, she then made a bridge 

 over the narrowest part of the river five furlongs in length, laying the 

 sup])orts and pillars of the arches with great art and skill in the bot- 

 tom of the water twelve feet distance from each other. That the 

 stones might be the more firmly joined, they were bound together with 

 hooks of iron, and the joints filled up with molten lead. And before 

 the pillars she made defences (sterlings) with sharp pointed angles, 

 to receive the water before it beat upon the flat sides of the pillars, 

 which caused the course of the water to run round by degrees 

 gently an{l moderately as far as to the broad sides of the pillars, so 

 that the sharp points of the angles cut the stream, and gave a check to 

 its violence, and the roundness of them by little and little giving way, 

 abated the force of the current. This bridge was floored with great 

 joists and planks of cedar, cypress and palm trees, and was thirty feet 

 in breadth, and for art and cuiiosity yielded to none of the works of 

 Semirami^. On either side of the river she raised a bank, as broad as 

 the wall, and with great cost drew it out in length a hundred furlongs. 

 Semiramis built likewise two palaces at each end of the bridge, upon 

 the bank of the river, whence she might have a prospect over the 

 •whole city, and make her passage as by keys to the most convenient places 

 in it as she had occasion. And whereas Euiihiates runs through the 

 middle of Babylon, making its course to the south, the palaces lie the 

 one on the east, and the other on the west side of the river, both built 

 at exceeding cost and expense. For that on the west had a high and 

 stately wall, made of burnt brick, sixty furlongs in compass ; within 

 this was drawn another of a round form, upon wliich were pourtrayed 

 in the bricks, before they were burned, all sorts of living creatures, as 

 if it were to the life, laid with great art in curious colours. Our 

 author goes on further to describe the ornaments of the palaces, which 

 as less connected with our object we omit. He also describes the 

 formation of a vaulted passage between the two palaces under the 

 Euphrates, made by diverting the river. He says that the walls of 

 this vault were twer.ty bricks in thickness, and twelve feet high, be- 

 side and above the arches ; and the breadth was fifteen feet. The 

 arches were of firm and strong brick, and plastered all over on both 

 sides with bitumen four cubits thick. This piece of work being 

 finished in two hundred and sixty days, the river was turned into its 

 ancient channel again. 



SEMIRAMIS'S WAT. 



In a march towards Ecbatana, Semiramis arrived at the mountain 

 Larcheum, which being many furlongs in extent, and full of steep pre- 

 cipices imd craggy rocks, there was no ])assing but by long and tedious 

 windings and turnings. To leave therefore behind her an eternal 

 monument of her name, and to make a short Cut for her passage, she 

 caused the rocks to be hewn down, and the valleys to be tilled up 

 with earth, and so in a short time at a vast expense laid the way open 

 and plain, w hich to this day is called Semiramis's way. 



AQUEDUCT AT ECBATANA. 



Besides this road, when she came to Ecbatana, which is situated in 

 a low and even plain, she built there a stately palace, and bestowed 

 more of her care and pains than she had done at any other place. For 

 the city wanting w-ater, (there being no spring near) she plentifully 

 supplied it with good and wholesome water, brought thither with a 

 great deal of toil and expense after this manner. Tliere is a mountain 

 called Orontes, twelve furlongs distant from the city, exceedingly high 

 and steep for the space of five and twenty furlongs (query) up 'to the 

 top; on the other side of this mountain there is a great lake which 

 empties itself into the river. At the foot of this mountain she dug a 

 canal fifteen feet in breadth and forty in depth, through which she 

 conveyed water in great abundance into the city. 



BRIDGE OF BOATS. 



In her expedition into India, Diodorus relates that to cross the river, 

 she carried with her boats, and made a bridge of boats by which she 

 crossed. 



SEMIRAMIS DEinED. 



After her death or disappearance, Semiramis was adored by the 

 Assyrians in the form of a dove, it being believed that she" was 

 enthroned amocg the gods. 



MEMNON'S CAUSEWAY. 



Of this work Diodorus gives the following account. Memnoo, the 



son of Tithon, governor of Persia, was in the flower of his age, strong 

 and courageous, and had built a palace in the citadel of Susa, which 

 retained the name of Memnonia to the time of the Persian empire. 

 He pa\ed also there a common highway, which is called Memnon's 

 way to this day ; but the Ethiopians of Egypt question this, and say 

 that MemnoD was their countryman, and show several ancient palaces, 

 which (they say) retain his name to this day, being called Memnon's 

 palaces. 



We shall now cull from the Fifth Book of Diodorus a number of de- 

 sultory notes on different subjects, and first as to the 



IRON MINES OF ETHALIA. 



This island (Elba) abounds with iron stone, which they dig and cut 

 out of the ground to melt, in order for the making of iron; much of 

 wdiich met il is in this sort of stone. The workmen employed first, 

 cut the stones in pieces, and then melt them in furnaces, built and pre- 

 pared for the purpose. In these furnaces, the stones by the violent 

 heat of the fire, are melted into several pieces, in form like to great 

 sponges, which the merchants buy by truck and exchange of other 

 wares, and transport them to Dicearchia, and other mart towns. 



TIN MINES OF BRITAIN. 



Now'we shall speak something of the tin which is dug and gotten 

 here. They who inhabit the British promontory of Bolerium, by rea- 

 son of their converse with merchants, are more civilized and courteous 

 to strangers than the rest are. These are the people that make the 

 tin, wliii h with a great deal of care and labour they dig out of the 

 ground : and that being rocky, the metal is mixetl w ith some veins of 

 earth, out of which they melt the metal, and then refine it. Then 

 they beat it into four square pieces like to a die, and carry it to a 

 British Isle near at hand, called Ictis (Wight).* 



GOLD MINES OF GAUL — ARMS. 



In Gaul there are no silver mines, but much gold, with which the 

 nature of the place supplies the inhabitants, without the labour or toil 

 of digging in the mines. For the winding course of the river washing 

 with its streams the foot of the mountain, carries away great pieces 

 of golden earth ; and when it is so done, they cleanse them from the 

 gross earthy part, by washing them in water, and then melt them in a 

 furnace; and thus get together a vast heap of gold, with which not 

 only the women, but the men deck and adorn themselves. 



As the arms used by the Gauls are calculated to show the progress 

 made by them in the working of other metals, we copy the following 

 descriptions. Some carry on their shields the shapes of beasts in 

 brass, artificially wrought, as well for defence as ornament. Upon 

 their heads they wear helmets of brass, with large pieces of work 

 raised upon them for ostentation sake, to be admirecl by the beholders ; 

 for they have either horns of the same metal joined to them, or the 

 shape of birds and beasts carved upon them. Some of them wear 

 iron breastplates, and hooked ; but others, content with what arms na- 

 ture affords them, fight naked. For swords they use a long and broad 

 weapon called s/jaMa, which they hang across their right thigh by iron 

 or brazen chains. Some gird themselves over their coats, with belts, 

 ornamented with gold or silver. For darts they cast those they call 

 lances, the iron shafts of which are a cubit or more in length, and 

 almost two hands in breadth. 



CELTIBERIAN MODE OF PREPARING IRON. 



They carry two edged swords exactly tempered with steel, and 

 have daggers beside of a span long, which they make use of in close 

 fights. They make weapons and darts in an admirable manner, for 

 they bury plates of iron so long under ground, till the rust hath con- 

 sumed the greater part, and so the lest becomes more strong and firm : 

 of this they make their swords and other warlike weapons, and with 

 these arms thus tempered, they so cut through every thing in their 

 way, that neither shield, helmet, nor bone can withstand them. 



SILVER MNES OF SPAIN. 



Having related what concerns the Iberians, we conceive it not im- 

 pertinent to say something of their silver mines; for almost all this 

 country is full of such mines, whence is dug very good and pure silver; 

 from which those who deal in that metal gain exceeding great profit. 

 The Pyrencan mountains are the highest and greatest of all others, 

 and being full of woods, and thick of trees, it is reported that in an- 

 cient time this mountainous tract was set on fire by some shepherds, 

 and continuing burning for many days together, (whence the mountains 

 were called Pyrenean or fiery), the parched superficies of the earth 

 sweated abundance of silver, and the ore being melted, the metal 

 flowed down in streams of pure silver, like a river; the use whereof 



* V'.ilso, Spain. 



