“The engaging of mules, the hiring of servants, and the preparation of provisions, detained us in Mosul until Wednesday, the 21st of May.  The meantime was spent by us in visiting the excavations on the opposite side of the river.  In the mound of Koyunjik, we followed our guide through a labyrinth of narrow corridors, lighted dimly by occasional openings in the firm clay overhead.  Some of the sculptures were described in Mr. Leyard’s volumes; others have been since unearthed, and some most interesting galleries had just been left by the picks of the workmen.  Time, at present, does not permit me to describe them; but I may mention as among the most interesting of the recent discoveries, a succession of slabs carved with a representation of the original transportation of the great winged bulls which adorned the stately entrances of the palaces of Ninus and Sardanapalus.  A collection of small, inscribed stones, has also been found, supposed to contain public records; and, but a day or two ago, the workmen brought in the report of new and still grander sculptures just discovered.

“We had expected to start on Wednesday at sunrise; but various petty hindrances detained us until late in the afternoon.  We then united in prayer with the family in whose cares, anxieties, and dangers we had shared through so many weary weeks, and hastened to our saddles.  Passing the Tigris by a rude ferry, we rode in the setting sunlight by the once mysterious mounds of Koyunjik.  The reapers who were still busy within the grassy walls of fallen Ninevah, came up to us as we passed, with their sickles on their heads, to present the offering of the first fruits of harvest.  We hurried on, however, and stopped for the night at a small village little more than an hour from the gate of Mosul.”

On the third day they reached the town of Akkre, among the mountains, where they were obliged to stay three days, waiting for the Kurdish muleteers.  They performed the Sabbath service in a cavern of the mountain which the native christians had fitted up as a secret chapel.  Leaving Akkre on Monday morning, the 26th of May, they entered the most dangerous part of the mountains.  Mr. B. says: 

“We spent this day’s nooning by a spring that bursts out near the top of a steep mountain, and ate our dinner under a tree that distilled upon the rocks a fragrant gum.  Mounting again at two o’clock, in half an hour we reached the summit, whence we looked down a giddy descent upon the swift but winding Zab.  Here it became necessary to leave our animals, and work our way down the almost precipitous road, while the mules slid, scrambled, and tumbled after us as best they might.  As I was pushing on a little in advance of the party, I was met, in a narrow turn of the path, by an old bearded man, with a dagger in his girdle, who reached out his hand toward me.  I was uncertain at first how to understand it; but his only object was to press my hand to his lips with a fervent ‘salam aleikum’