THE TOWER OF BABEL. 
313 
wall, contiguous to these huge transmuted substances, it is found 
totally free from any similar changes, in short, quite in its 
original state; hence I draw the conclusion, that the consuming- 
power acted from above, and that the scattered ruin fell from 
some higher point than the summit of the present standing 
fragment. The heat of the fire which produced such amazing- 
effects, must have burnt with the force of the strongest furnace ; 
and from the general appearance of the cleft in the wall, and 
these vitrified masses, I should be inclined to attribute the 
catastrophe to lightning from heaven. Ruins, by the explosion 
of any combustible matter, would have exhibited very different 
appearances. 
On the face of the pile itself*, a little way down its northern 
brow, a considerable space of similar fine brick masonry is vi¬ 
sible. The bricks here measure three inches and a quarter in 
thickness, by twelve inches in length. They are a pale red, and 
cemented, like the upper mural fragment, with lime. In this 
wall also, are square apertures, running deep into the interior of 
the pile; and, notwithstanding that the masonry is greatly in¬ 
jured in places, yet, from its general smoothness and well- 
finished work, I cannot doubt its having formed a part of the 
grand casing of fine brick, which every observation on this 
gigantic ruin, leads us to suppose encrusted the whole structure 
in gradual stages. Lower down, and more to the eastward, we 
have another and larger vestige of this sort of wall, presenting 
itself in an angular form ; one of its faces fronting the east. 
Here the work is altogether on a vaster scale; the bricks being- 
four inches and three quarters thick, by twelve and three quar- 
* See Plate LXX. 
s s 
VOL. II. 
