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Doe 
Letter from Rev. Dr. Smith on the Ruins of Nineveh. 125 
been, as to size, altogether out of taste. Upon the walls, and 
reaching from one to the other, were immense timbers, (a few 
preserved fragments of which have been found, ) more than thirty 
feet in length; and upon them, to complete the roof, was a layer 
of earth, probably of considerable thickness. 'Thus, it will be 
seen, a building was constructed worthy of the simplicity of the 
first ages of the world, and in strange contrast with the sculptures 
that formed its ornaments. 
Without doubt the building was destroyed by fire. Enough 
charcoal exists among the ruins to justify this supposition, and 
also the one that wood was employed about the doors and roof. 
Further, the calcination of a portion of some of the stones, and 
especially of their exposed surfaces, shows this to have been the 
fact. If, now, there were several feet of earth upon the roof, and 
if after the falling of this, portions of that part of the wall lined 
only with brick tumbled inward, it can easily be seen that the 
rooms were soon filled up with rubbish so high as to bury the 
stones that faced the lower part of the wall. In some parts of the 
building these stones may not have been completely buried, and 
hence succeeding generations may have found and removed these 
portions, without being aware of, or without caring to remove, those 
which remain. If this has been the case, it will explain the fact 
that the outlines of other rooms than those enumerated in our 
description can be traced, although the stones which lined their 
walls are not to be found. ‘That such stones once existed, is 
inferred from the analogy of the rooms which are more perfectly 
preserved, and from the fact that the doorways of these rooms, 
like the other main passage ways, are guarded by the monster 
oxen before described—which were probably so large as to be 
immovable by any power that the pilferer of the works of his 
predecessors could command. 
Before closing this account, it will be but a just tribute of merit 
to say a few words respecting the gentlemen who have been en- 
gaged in developing the ruins now described. Mons. Botta, the 
discoverer, is son of Botta, author of the History of the Ame- 
rican Revolution. He has been for many years a traveller in 
foreign countries, is acquainted with various languages, and is by 
nature aman of taste and accurate discrimination. With all these 
qualifications, however, had he not made the investigation of 
antiquities a study, and had he not, by experience in Egypt, be- 
