northern edge of the western portion of the mound, and the cottages of Kurds and Turkomans are grouped about it. The eastern portion forms a general Mohammedan burialground for the surrounding country. Palaces and temples were raised on these two great mounds, both of which are in the same line and abutted on the western wall of the city. On this side Nineveh was thirteen thousand six hundred feet, or over two and a half miles long, and in ancient times overhung the Tigris, which is now a mile farther to the west, leaving a plain of that impends over a deep ravine formed by a winter torrent, thus running in a direct line about a thousand yards, when it is joined with the eastern wall, with which it forms a slightly acute angle. The eastern wall is the longest and the most irregular of the four ramparts, and skirts 'the edge of a rocky ridge, there rising above the level of the plain and presenting a slightly convex course to the north-east. This wall is sixteen thousand feet, or over three miles long, and is divided a little north of the middle into two portions, by the ruins, running across the low plains to the Tigris. Thus the entire enceinte of Nineveh forms an irregular trapezium. Its greatest width, which is in its northern portion, is fourninths of its length, thus giving the city an oblong shape, as Diodorus described it, though he greatly exaggerated its size. The circuit of the walls is not quite eight miles, instead of being over fifty; and the area thus embraced is eighteen hundred English acres, and not one hundred and twelve thousand. width between the river and the old rampart | Khosr-su, which flows through the city of the city. This rampart followed the natural course of the river bank. At its northern extremity the western wall approaches the present course of the Tigris, and is there connected, at exactly right angles, with the northern or north-western rampart, which runs in a direct line to the north-eastern angle of the city and measures exactly seven thousand feet. At one third of the distance from the north-west angle this wall is broken by a road, and adjoining this is a remarkable mound, which covers one of the principal gates of the city. At its other end the western wall forms an obtuse angle with the southern wall, which It has been estimated that populous Oriental cities have a hundred inhabitants to the acre, or one to fifty square yards, thus giving ancient Nineveh one hundred and seventy-five thousand souls, a population exceeding that of any city of Western Asia at the present time. Diodorus described the wall with which Ninus surrounded his capital as being one hundred feet high, and so wide that three chariots could be driven abreast along the top. Xenophon, who passed near the ruins while conducting the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, says that the walls were one hundred and fifty feet high and fifty feet broad. The greatest height at present appears to be forty-six feet; but the great amount of rubbish at the foot of the walls, and their ruined condition, have led Mr. Layard to say: "The remains still existing of these fortifications almost confirm the statement of Diodorus Siculus, that the walls were a hundred feet high." The walls in their present condition are from one hundred to two hundred feet broad. Xenophon says that the walls up to fifty feet were constructed of a fossiliferous limestone, smoothed and polished on the outside, and that above that height sun-dried bricks were used. The stone masonry, in Mr. Layard's opinion, was ornamented along its top by a continuous series of battlements, or gradines, of the same material, and it is probable that a like ornamentation crowned the upper brick structure. The wall was pierced at irregular intervals by gates, above which rose high towers; and lower towers occurred in the parts of the wall between the different gates. A gate in the northwestern rampart, cleared by excavation, seems to have consisted of three gateways, the inner and outer being ornamented with colossal winged man-headed bulls and other figures, while the middle one was only paneled with alabaster slabs. Between the gateways were two large chambers, seventy feet long by twenty-three feet wide, being thus capable of holding a considerable body of soldiers. The chambers and gateways are believed to have been arched over, similar to the castles' gates on the bas-reliefs. The gates themselves have entirely ceased to exist, but the rubbish which filled both the The chambers and the passages contained so much charcoal as to give rise to the belief that they were constructed of bronze. ground within the gateway was paved with large limestone slabs, which still bear the marks of chariot-wheels. Besides its ramparts, Nineveh was protected on all sides by water barriers, the west and south being defended by natural streams, and the north and east by artificial canals beginning at the Khosr-su. Skirting the northern and eastern walls was a deep moat, into which the waters of the Khosr-su were turned by occupying its natural channel with a strong dam, carried across it in the line of the eastern wall, and at the point where the stream now flows into the enclosure. On coming in contact with this obstruction, of which some vestiges yet remain, the waters separated into two parts, one flowing to the south-east into the Tigris by the ravine immediately to the south of the city, which is a natural water-course, and the other turning at an acute angle to the north-west, washing the remainder of the eastern and the entire northern wall, and emptying into the Tigris at the northwest angle of the city, where a second dam kept it at a sufficient height. On the eastern side, which seems to have been the weakest and the most exposed, a series of outer defenses were constructed for the further protection of the city. North of the Khosr-su, between the city wall and that stream, which there flows parallel to the wall and forms a second or outer moat, are the remains of a detached fort which, from its size, evidently added considerable strength to the city's defenses in that quarter. The works are yet more elaborate to the south and south-east of the Khosr-su. From a point where the stream leaves the hills and reaches low ground, a deep ditch, two hundred feet wide, was extended for two miles, until it connected with the ravine forming the natural defense of the city on the south. On each side of the ditch, which could be easily filled with water from the Khosr-su at its northern extremity, was erected a high and wide wall; the eastern one forming the outermost defense, and rising even yet a hundred feet above the bottom of the ditch on which it adjoins. Between this outer barrier and the city moat was a kind of demi-lune, defended by a double wall and a broad ditch, and joined by a covered way with the city itself. Thus Nineveh was protected on its most vulnerable side, towards the centre, by five walls and three broad and deep moats; towards the north by a wall, a moat, the Khosr-su and a strong outpost; towards the south by two moats and three lines of rampart. The entire fortification on the eastern side is two thousand two hundred feet, or nearly a half mile wide. The accounts of Ctesias and Diodorus respecting the immense size of Nineveh are highly exaggerated, and it is known that these writers regarded the ruins of Nimrud, Keremles, Khorsabad and Koyunjik as all being the remains of that renowned Assyrian capital. The Book of Jonah also bears testimony to the immense size of this great city. Unlike Ctesias, who only saw the ruins of Nineveh, Jonah saw the city itself in its splendor. This Hebrew prophet tells us that Nineveh was "an exceeding great city, of three days' journey," and also that in it were more than sixscore thousand persons that could not discern between their right hand and their left." Though these passages are very vague, they yet convey some idea of the vastness of the city. It has been supposed that the one hundred and twenty thousand persons "that could not discern between their right hand and their left" were children, which would thus indicate a population of about six hundred thousand. It has also been believed that the phrase "six score thousand persons that could not discern between their right hand and their left" alluded to the dense ignorance of the inhabitants, in which case the number here mentioned included the entire population of the city. The sculptures of the Assyrians furnish us with very complete representations of their system of warfare. The Assyrians, like other ancient nations, fought in chariots, on horseback and on foot. Like the Egyptians, the early Greeks, the Canaanites, the Syrians, the Jews and Israelites, the Philistines, the Hittites, the Lydians, the Elamites, or Susianians, the Medes and Persians, the Hindoos, the Gauls, the Britons, and other peoples of antiquity, the Assyrians looked upon the chariot as most honorable. Their king invariably went to war and battle riding in a chariot, only dismounting and shooting his arrows on foot while besieging a town. The leading officers of state, and other dignitaries of high rank, followed the same custom. The cavalry and infantry were composed of persons of the lower classes. The Jewish prophet Isaiah, in warning his countrymen of the miseries in store for them, described the Assyrians as a people "whose arrows were sharp, and all their bows bent, whose horses' hoofs should be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind." The same prophet, in afterwards announcing Jehovah's displeasure with Sennacherib on account of his pride, speaks of that king's reliance upon "the multitude of his chariots." The prophet Nahum, in announcing the coming overthrow of the haughty nation, declares that Jehovah is "against her, and will burn her chariots in the smoke." In the fabulous Assyrian history by Ctesias the war-chariots of the mythical king Ninus are represented as amounting to nearly eleven thousand, and those of his wife and successor, Semiramis, are estimated at the extravagant number of one hundred thousand. The Assyrian war-chariot is believed to have been made of wood. Like that of the Greeks and Egyptians, it seems to have been mounted from behind, being there completely open, or only closed by means of a shield, which could be hung across the aperture. It was richly ornamented, and completely paneled at the sides. The two wheels were placed at the extreme hind end of the body, as in the Egyptian war-chariot. The chariot-wheels of the early period had six spokes; those of the middle and later periods had eight. The felloes of the wheels usually consisted of three distinct circles, the |