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to accomplish our missions, we could spare neither money nor 
time in clearing out all the rubbish from the different chambers 
which we discovered, and so we could only dig about 5 ft. or 
6 ft. in front of the walls, whether sculpture or otherwise, 
so as to allow space for the workmen to pass each other un- 
hindered. Since then there has been so much interest evinced 
in this branch of archaeological research, especially since the 
Creation and the Deluge tablets were deciphered, the Trustees 
of the British Museum have been most anxious to obtain an 
additional supply to the already existing collection, particu- 
larly in completing the tablets which are considered most 
interesting to Biblical study. On this account I was sent to 
Mesopotamia again by the British Museum authorities in 1877; 
and though my first attention was directed towards the above 
object, nevertheless I could not content myself with that stale 
occupation of merely examining the already-discovered palaces, 
but I endeavoured to try other new localities, where my 
efforts proved successful. Now we do not only clear out all 
the chambers of the debris, but actually break down every 
wall, in search for records, because it happened that both in 
the palace of Sennacherib and that of Assur-bani-pal we found 
cylinders buried in the solid brick walls, which were placed 
there evidently by the king's command, to preserve them from 
destruction in case of fire. 
31. The first time I began to consider it necessary to 
examine all the walls of the Assyrian chambers, was, when I 
discovered, by a mere accident, one of the afore-mentioned 
cylinders recording the annals of Sardanapalus buried in a 
solid wall about ten feet from the lion- hunt room of the same 
king, which I discovered no less than twenty-five years before. 
I was that day going to Nimroud to look after my other ex- 
cavations there, but before I proceeded thither I went to 
see how the work was progressing at Koyunjik and also to 
give directions for future proceedings. When I was leaving, 
the overseer superintending the work at that mound asked 
me whether he was to cover a remnant of a broken wall 
with the debris they were clearing out or have it removed 
first. I told him, most fortunately, that as we were clearing 
every part of the palace he might just as well pull down 
that remnant of a wall too, and it appeared that I had not 
gone away two hours before we were rewarded by the dis- 
covery of this valuable relic. 
32. The Kings of Assyria, it seems, had a wise plan of 
building within the bottom part of the solid walls of a palace 
the official record of their reign; and, generally speaking, they 
