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BIRS NIMROOD 
through whose bed we passed, and which stretched first south¬ 
ward, and then bent westward. About six hundred yards further 
brought us to a second canal of vaster dimensions than the 
preceding, being full thirty yards across, with very high embank¬ 
ments, broken into a succession of little hillocks. This canal 
took a direction to our right for nearly three quarters of a mile, 
corresponding to the line of the other on our left; running first 
north and west, then taking a sweep gradually due south, bent 
again, and (according to the observation I could make by my 
glass, while standing on one of the hillocks,) described a line to 
the eastward, till it joined the narrower canal through whose 
channel we had recently passed. The space thus inclosed, 
seemed to be about two miles ; forming, though in ruins, the 
outlines of a vast court, or area, round the sublimest monument 
of the past, still rearing its shattered summit towards the heavens. 
On observing the range of these canals, or trenches, it struck me, 
that the inner bank may have been a wall; and in that case, the 
surrounding channel becomes a feature of exterior defence. 
Almost all over the ground between the base of the great pile 
- itself and these boundaries, abundant vestiges of former building 
are visible ; exhibiting uneven heaps of various sizes, covered 
with masses of broken brick, tiles, and vitrified fragments, all 
silently eloquent of some former signal overthrow. 
On coming within this traceable area, I found its irregular 
surface thronged with the Kiahya’s horsemen ; while the com¬ 
mander himself, with the leaders of his troops, had dismounted, 
and were already ascended into the mount itself. This intelli¬ 
gence did not delight me quite so much as my informer seemed 
to anticipate; for these were companions in my researches I had 
neither expected nor desired ; being well aware that the for- 
