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come upon the top of the buildings, while at the latter place 
we were obliged sometimes to excavate down 20 feet ero 
we could come upon any sign of ancient remains. In one 
case, where I discovered the Assur-nazir-paPs obelisk, which is 
now in the British Museum, I had to penetrate into the ground 
35 feet before I came upon Assyrian remains. The discovery 
of this obelisk and the large Sardanapalus cylinder makes mo 
very often wonder how an explorer might miss a most valuable 
record of the past by merely digging a foot or even a few 
inches from either side of it ; and this fact leads me to hope 
that before England abandons the researches in Assyria and 
Babylonia altogether, where she has been so marvellously 
successful in her explorations, she will have the mounds of 
Koyunjik and Nimroud laid bare, that is to say, have them 
thoroughly examined, by beginning at one end and finishing 
at the other. I feel confident that if the work were continued 
for the next hundred years, in the same style in whic h we have 
been carrying it on for the last thirty-five years, still, at the 
end, we might, perhaps, miss a relic which would be most in- 
valuable to both religious and scientific research. 
35. The discovery of the bronze gates at the mound of 
Balawat, about nine miles from Nimroud, which has created so 
much interest in England and elsewhere, is a proof of what I 
have said. This mound has been used as a cemetery from 
time immemorial by the Mohammedans, and most likely by 
the Sassanians before them ; and I do not believe there is a 
space of 2 feet in all the mound where a grave had not been 
dug to the depth of 5 or 0 feet ; and yet for all this long 
period no one happened to hit upon that monument, as it was 
buried between 5 and 16 feet below the surface of the ground. 
Most fortunately, the upper part of it was only 5 feet 
below the surface, and thus the pickaxe of the grave-digger, 
after the lapse of more than 2,500 years, came in contact with 
the metal of this rare object which stopped his progress, and 
he, thinking it to be the pioneer of endless treasure, had no 
scruple then to think more of the living than of the dead. He 
took out what he could of the bronze for sale, and made it 
appear to the mourners that that was unhallowed ground for 
a true believer to be buried in. Of the pieces which were dug 
out, two were sent to me to England as a present, and this 
led me to search for the rest when I went out to Assyria two 
years ago. It is most astonishing that with so many explorers 
and eminent savants who must have often passed that mound, 
no one thought of digging in it until by a mere accident of 
opening a grave I was led to have it explored, and brought to 
