CENTER GROUP OF COLUMNS. 
637 
arranged in rows of six deep on all sides; forming, of course, an 
exact square, and planted at the same spaces from each other, 
as the columns in the other three divisions. The dimensions of 
these in circumference, and in the depth of the pedestal, as also 
the general particulars of their ornaments, are similar in every 
respect to the others; but there is , a great difference in their 
height; those I have before described being sixty feet high, and 
these only fifty-five. Their shafts, which are fluted like the 
others, are about thirty-five feet in length; but the capitals 
which surmount them are of a quite different character, (Plate 
XLV. figs, c, c, c, c,) being of the same description with that I 
noticed in the great portal, where the crowned and winged bull 
is so conspicuous an object. The two lower divisions of the 
capital (it being of a triad form) are evidently constructed of 
the hallowed lotos ; and naturalists who are interested in that 
branch of nature’s works, would be particularly delighted with an 
examination into the beautiful details of this division and re¬ 
union. The upper compartment has only two volutes. The 
middle compartment, which is one division of the lotos, appears 
to have had some extraneous body introduced into the opening 
between it and the lower compartment of the flower ; and the 
angular and unfinished state of that side of the capital seems to 
testify the same. Here, then, the connecting line must have 
run, whence the roof could spring. I remarked another cir¬ 
cumstance, on inspecting these columns, which may corroborate 
the idea of a roof having been here, from a manifest appearance 
of some immense body having, at some period, fallen against 
the interior of the capitals, and fractured them there to a very 
ruinous degree, while their outward faces are nearly without a 
scar. Hence, I would conclude, that the whole of these central 
