Correspondence. 



295 



and solid, so that it cannot have been a palace, nor a fort, nor a store- 

 house, as some imagine. It is formed of bricks cemented with a kind of 

 slime peculiar to the ' Birs,' as it is called; but what it is I could 

 not exactly make out, but it did not seem to be bitumen. Huge masses 

 of brick lay scattered one upon another, as from the explosion of 

 a vast mine. Every mass, even of ten feet in diameter, is vitrified to 

 the very centre, though the form of the bricks can still be distinctly 

 seen, shewing the effects of a degree of heat far beyond the power of 

 man to produce, and pointing out in the most striking manner, the effect 

 of that Almighty power, which has effected the destruction. Having 

 taken a hasty view of the city of Hillah, which is entirely built of the 

 bricks from the tower of Babel, we started for the ruins of Babylon, 

 which extend for some distance up the river. These are mounds or 

 heaps, the first of which is called the palace of marble, from which the 

 beautiful slabs of marble are taken and broken up for cement. Near 

 this, the natives pointed out a large oven or furnace, partially fused 

 like a brick kiln. This they say is the furnace into which Daniel 

 was cast. It is too close to the palace to be a brick kiln, and can only 

 have been intended for the purpose of punishment. 



" A little to the north of the large hall of the palace, stands the only 

 willow tree to be found any where in the country. It grows among the 

 ruins, raised fifty feet at least above the level of the good soil, down 

 to which its roots must reach, to obtain nourishment; for all these 

 heaps of ruins are saturated with saltpetre. A little further on, is a 

 figure of a lion standing upon a prostrate man, cut in stone, four feet 

 high by eight feet long. Not a vestige of the city walls is to be seen, 

 so completely have they been destroyed ; but the ground for twenty 

 miles round is strewed with bricks and pots. Not a blade of grass grows 

 here, nor does man seek the desolate waste ; save a few who live by sel- 

 ling bricks and antiques ; beyond these heaps is a castle in which I hope 

 to make some discoveries, but of that hereafter. To the north is the 

 plain of Dura, where the golden image was set up." 



Extract of a Letter from Dr. Boase, late Secretary to the Royal Geological 

 Society of Cornwall. Presented by Captain Campbell of Madras. 

 The following may be interesting to those who have had an opportu- 

 nity of perusing Dr. Boase's excellent work on Primary Geology, and I 

 think that there are few who have studied that work, and have had 

 opportunities of comparing his perspicuous and admirably correct 

 descriptions with the phenomena of nature, who will not regret to 

 learn, that the author is no longer engaged in scientific pursuits, but 



