102 KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



memorial of American scientific enterprise and scholarship. Every- 

 thing that is necessary for such an undertaking is here — self-denying en- 

 thusiasm, facing all dangers; thorough preparation, insuring success — 

 a fertile field for investigation, promising rich results ; a magnificent 

 Museum, making accessible to the general public the treasures recov- 

 ered — everythiog is here. All we need is a fund. 



I trust we shall not have to wait until it is too late. In a few years 

 political complications in the East may render it impossible to recover 

 any of these treasures. 



For systematic excavatious in the ruins of some ancient Babylonian 

 cities, especially in the home of Abraham, Ur of the Chaldees, the 

 present Mugheir, on the right bank of the Euphrates, near the junction 

 with the canal Shatt-el-Hai, it would be necessary to employ about six 

 hundred Arab laborers, under the supervision of a scientific staff com- 

 posed of about twelve persons, one-half Assyriological specialists from 

 various American universities and seminaries, and the others, as far 

 as possible, ofiicers of the U. S. Army and Navy, including one or two 

 engineers, a surgeon, an architect, a photographer, and a business man- 

 ager, who might at the same time act as reporter and paymaster. The 

 expenses of the members of the staff would be about $5 a day, and 

 the daily wages for the native laborers about 20 cents, so that if the 

 expedition started from Europe about September 1, and conducted sys- 

 tematic excavations in Babylonia for half a year, the total cost of the 

 expedition would be about $40,000 — one-half wages for the diggers, 

 and an equal amount for the expenses of twelve members of the staff, 

 their outfit in clothing, bedding, arms, saddles, etc., the passage to 

 Europe and thence to Beirut, the caravan from Beirut to Bagdad, which 

 would be under way for about fifty days, and finally, six months' stay in 

 Babylonia. 



In view of the importance of the undertaking it may be expected that 

 the various institutions represented on the staff of the expedition will 

 defray the personal expenses of their delegates, which would amount 

 to about $2,000 in each case ; so all we need is a fund of $20,000 for the 

 excavations. If some public-spirited person should feel inclined to 

 present this amount he would be sure of grateful recognition on the part 

 of the whole civilized world. The expedition would go out under his 

 name, and the collection, to be transferred to the National Museum, as 

 well as the great monumental work embodying the results of all the 

 investigations, would forever be distinguished by his name. Every 

 single piece, too, of the thousands of sculptures and inscriptions would 

 be marked and always referred to by scholars all over the world as Y. 

 Z. 1, 2, 3, etc. 



I presume very few people in this country are aware what vast busi- 

 ness interests are connected with the exploration of Mesopotamia. 

 There is, for instance, the projected Euphrates Valley Railroad, between 

 Alexandretta, on the Mediterranean, and Basra, on the Persian Gulf, a 



