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“ The most curious of the fragments are several misshapen masses of brick- 
work, quite black. . . These have certainly been subjected to some fierce 
heat, as they are completely molten, a strong presumption that fire was used 
in the destruction of the tower, which in parts resembles what the Scriptures 
prophesied it should become — a burnt mountain. In the denunciations 
respecting Babylon, fire is particularly mentioned as an agent against it.” — 
Keppel’s Personal Narrative. 
“ On one side of it, beneath the crowning masonry, lie huge fragments torn 
from the pile itself. The calcined and vitreous surface of the bricks fused 
into rock-like masses, show that their fall may have been caused by lightning, 
and, as the ruin is almost rent from top to bottom, early Christian travellers, 
as well as some of more recent date, have not hesitated to recognise in them 
proofs of that divine vengeance which, according to tradition, arrested by fire 
from heaven the impious attempt of the first descendants of Noah. 5 ’ — Bayard’s 
Nineveh and Babylon. 
“ It is more difficult to explain the cause of the vitrification of the upper 
building. My late talented friend, Captain Newbold, assistant-resident in 
the Deccan, originated an idea when we examined the Birs Nimroud in 
company, which is, I believe, now beginning to be adopted, that, in order to 
render their edifices more durable, the Babylonians submitted them, when 
erected, to the heat of a furnace. This will account for the remarkable con- 
dition of the brickwork on the summit of the Birs Nimroud, which has un- 
doubtedly been subjected to the agency of fire. No wonder that the early 
explorers, carried away by their feelings of reverence, should have ascribed 
the vitrified and molten aspect of the ruins to the avenging fire of heaven, 
instead of to a more natural agency. It is worthy of notice that in several 
places where vitrified bricks occur in Babylonia, they are associated with a 
tradition that Nimrod there threw the patriarch Abraham into a furnace. 
There appears, therefore, to be some grounds for Captain Newbold’s sugges- 
tion.” — Loftus’ Chaldcea and Susiana. 
“ At the foot of this tower-like mass lie great boulders of vitrified brick- 
work, which were evidently fused by fire, from heaven or elsewhere, and 
hurled from the original summit of the building, which was no doubt 100 ft. 
or 150 ft. higher. The appearance of these masses of fused brickwork very 
naturally led Jews and Mussulmans to conclude that they had been blasted 
by lightning at the time of the confusion of tongues, which put a stop to the 
building of the Tower of Babel by the impious descendants of Noah.”— 
Geary’s Through Asiatic Turkey. 
The Chairman. — "YVe are all very much indebted to Mr. Bassam for his 
paper, which is so full of interest ; and although he has been kind enough to 
exert his voice, and read between thirty-six and thirty-seven pages of printed 
matter, the length of a paper should be measured rather by the amount of 
interest it contains than by any other standard. (Hear, hear.) I may say 
that I have heard some papers read in places not a hundred miles from here 
that have been much shorter than this, but which have yet seemed unrea- 
sonably long. This paper, although it consists of nearly thirty-seven pages, 
has not appeared to me a long one, and I think I may say the same on 
behalf of the majority of those present. (Hear, hear.) There is one thing 
on which I cannot help remarking, and that is the admirable way in which 
