174 THEOPHILUS G, PINCHES, LL.D., M.R.A.S., ON 
Book of Jonah, however, Nineveh is stated to have been an. 
exceeding great city of three days’ journey, and that being the 
case, the explanation that Calah on the south and Khorsabad on. 
the north were included seems to be very probable. The distance 
between those two extreme points is about 50 miles, which at 
10 miles a day, would take the time required. Ovid, in his 
story of Pyramis and Thisbe, states that the tragedy which he 
relates took place near the pyramid at the entrance of Nineveh. 
This was the traditional tomb of Ninus, and may well have 
been the great temple-tower excavated by Layard at Calah, in 
which he found a long passage, the original object of which was 
difficult to determine, and it cannot be said therefore whether 
it had ever been used as a tomb or not. It is to be noted, 
moreover, that in Genesis x, 11, 12, Resen, between Nineveh 
and Calah, is described as being ‘“ the great city.’ As it seems 
never to be spoken of in the inscriptions (the only Resen 
mentioned having lain seemingly on the north of Nineveh 
proper), it could not have been a city of any dimensions, and 
this parenthetical description may therefore refer to all the 
sites mentioned. As Jonah’s missionary visit to Nineveh took 
place during the reign of Jeroboam II., 783-743 B.c., Khorsabad 
must be excluded; but perhaps the extent of the united cities, 
“Nineveh, and Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah” (with Resen), was 
sufficiently great for a three days’ preaching journey without 
taking the northern foundation of Sargon in. 
COMMUNICATION FROM THE Rev. Dr. IRVING. 
As one who joined heartily in the unanimous vote of thanks to 
Dr. Pinches for his paper, every paragraph of which bristles with 
interest, I venture to touch upon a few points by way of eliciting 
fuller information, as I should have done had there been time for 
discussion when the paper was read. 
(1) One would be glad to know to what extent animal or vege- 
table remains have been found in those buried cities. Such remains 
(like those found by Dr. Macalister in the ruins of Gezer and in all the 
three successive cities of that site) are of great interest for students 
of Anthropology. Professor Ridgeway of Cambridge, for example, 
has lately shown me hoof-bones (“ coflin-bones”) of Hquus or Asinus 
completely calcified by a well-known natural process for which the 
soil, the building material, and the climate of Palestine furnish all 
the necessary conditions. 
