by the Tigris and the Euphrates, where the early Asiatic colonies of Scripture were founded, and where Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, flourished and founded Babel, and whence, according to Scripture, Asshur went forth to build Nineveh, are interesting ground.  Of these great Assyrian towns it was natural to seek some ruins.  Of all these cities, however, founded so far back before authentic history begins, only Nineveh, which flourished many centuries later, and of which we have always had more authentic histories than those of any other Assyrian city, attained to a comparatively modern prosperity and renown.  The records of this magnificent city, from which historians have derived their information, describe its walls as reaching no less than two hundred feet in height, and broad enough to be a chariot-way.  These walls were sixty miles in circumference, and guarded by fifteen hundred towers; and in the eighth century before the Christian era the city is estimated to have included a population of more than half a million souls.  But many centuries before this, Nineveh was a wonderful city, of which the great monarch Ninus was king, and of which his celebrated wife, Semiramis, was afterwards queen.  Ninus is the reputed founder of the Assyrian empire, and to him the magnificence of the capital is chiefly attributed.  He is the Sesostris of Assyrian history, and is supposed to have flourished about twelve centuries before our era.  The names of many Assyrian monarchs occur in the Sacred Writings:  Sennacherib, who, seven centuries before our era, besieged Jerusalem and invaded Judea; and Shalmanasaar, who carried away the ten tribes of Israel.  Later, the sovereignty of the Assyrian nation was transferred to Babylon by Nebuchadonosor; and afterwards the Medes and Babylonians laid the magnificent Nineveh in ruins, over which, many centuries afterwards, Herodotus wandered wonderingly, and endeavoured to glean from the pitiful wreck an idea of the bygone glory.  The centre of the ancient Assyrian empire was the present Turkish province of Mosul; and hereabouts the researches of travellers have therefore been concentrated.  Opposite Mosul, the capital of the province, are the two mounds which Mr. Rich hastily explored in 1820.  These mounds have long formed the subject of animated controversies; but it was not before the year 1842 that any serious attempt was made to penetrate beneath the grass that covered them.  In this year M. Botta, the French consul at Mosul, made some insignificant opening, but without discovering any remarkable remains; and rumours having reached him from Khorsabad, a few miles off, of some remains there, he caused some vigorous excavations to be made there, and, aided by his government, contrived to lodge an excellent collection of Assyrian sculptures in the Louvre.  About this time Mr. Layard was travelling through the Turkish Asiatic provinces; and in the course of his wanderings paid considerable attention to the mounds situated at Nimroud