1854.] Literary Intelligence. 725 



meter, without spokes, by some three hundred Arabs for whom 

 harnesses were made to order. The blocks now lie on the eastern 

 side of the Tigris, under rude mud coverings which were built to 

 prevent the sulphate of lime of which they were composed, from 

 speedy decomposition. Sandstone was sometimes used for bulls in 

 Nimroud, but gypsum was the common material, and this soft marble 

 is susceptible of being most delicately wrought. It is easily worn by 

 water, and even the rains of this hot climate are sufficient to decom- 

 pose it very rapidly. It is only the immense mass of earth above 

 the Assyrian sculptures which has preserved them from age to age. 



" It is presumed that permission will be given to Mons. Place to 

 remove the sculptures, which are destined for the Louvre, as applica- 

 tion has been made to the French ambassador at the Porte, who is 

 now in quite as good standing at Constantinople as Lord Stratford, 

 and in fact wields almost as much power as the Sultan himself. 



" Mr. Loftus, who was recently attached to the Commission ap- 

 pointed to run the boundary-line between Turkey and Persia, as 

 geologist, passed through Mosul a few days since on his way to 

 Baghdad, in charge of the expedition fitted out by the newly formed 

 English company. He expects about £20,000 to be placed at his 

 disposal, and, with the advice of Col. Eawlinson, he will first lay 

 open some of the sarcophagi in the great series of mounds at Werha 

 — by some supposed to be the Ur of the Chaldees — and then explore 

 various other tels in Mesopotamia. Should nothing of great interest 

 be found there (you know that but few sculptures have ever been 

 discovered in Babylonia, as gypsum-quarries are wanting there), he 

 will come northward and continue the excavations so auspiciously 

 begun by Layard and vigorously prosecuted by Eawlinson. The 

 latter was just about to cease operations for the British Museum, 

 and to send home the artist, when a discovery was made which pro- 

 mises to be not inferior to any made by Layard. The Colonel has 

 not till recently had great success in excavating : a few slabs were 

 found at Nimroud, some bricks, and ivory and copper utensils, with 

 one or two basalt obelisks, well broken in pieces ; and some large 

 earthen cylinders, said to be of considerable interest, as at least one 

 hundred years older than the sculptures of Nimroud, belonging to 

 the time of Tiglath Pileser, turned up at Kalah Sherghat. Small 



