360 
RUINS OF BABYLON. 
away since their insertion. It was only amongst the huge 
fragments lying thus low in the foundations, that I observed 
bitumen had been used as a cement between each course of 
brick : in all other parts of the structure, which appeared of 
sufficient height to be beyond the probable reach of water or 
damp, neither bitumen nor reeds could be traced; a layer of 
simple mortar being there the binding material. The farther I 
examined into the body of this immense hill of buildings, the 
more I was convinced of one essential difference between the 
manner of its construction and that of the Birs Nimrood and 
Mujelibe. The great stamina of their piles were vast internal 
courses of sun-dried brick, consolidated into huge sustaining 
masses, by the intervention of reeds and slime ; but all that I 
observed throughout the heights and depths of the Kasr mound, 
within and without, was a magnificent material of furnace-burnt 
brick, with all its necessary attendant cements. On inspecting 
the fragments accessible to examination, I found that the face 
of every brick, (that is, the surface where the inscription is 
stamped,) was invariably placed downwards ; and, where bitu¬ 
men had been used, the backs of each course so disposed, were 
then covered with a layer of bitumen, on which reeds were 
spread, or laid in regular matting; and on this careful prepara¬ 
tion, the face of the succeeding course of bricks was bedded; 
which preserving management, in some measure, accounts for 
the astonishingly fresh state in which the inscriptions on their 
surfaces are generally presented. I have an exception or two 
in my possession ; having picked up several pieces of the brick, 
where the characters have been totally filled up by the bitumen; 
an accident likely to happen, from the almost fluid state of the 
petroleum when first applied. Specimens of the actual reed or 
