On the following day we rode to the Mosque Elkosch, near the town.  Noah’s son Shem has found a resting-place here.  We were not allowed to enter this mosque, but certainly did not lose much by that, as all these monuments are alike, and are not remarkable either for architecture or ornament.

The Nineveh excavations are carried on most extensively at Tel-Timroud, a district where the mounds of earth are the most numerous.  Tel-Nimroud is situated about eighteen miles from Mosul down the Tigris.

We took our seats one moonlight evening upon a raft, and glided down between the dull banks of the Tigris.  After seven hours, we landed, about 1 o’clock in the morning, at a poor village, bearing the high sounding name Nimroud.  Some of the inhabitants, who were sleeping before their huts, made us a fire and some coffee, and we then laid down till daybreak upon some rugs we had brought with us.

At daybreak we took horses (of which there are plenty in every village), and rode to the excavations, about a mile from Nimroud.  We found here a great number of places which had been dug up, or rather, uncovered mounds of earth, but not, as at Herculaneum, whole houses, streets, squares, indeed, half a town.  Nothing beyond separate rooms has been brought to light here, or at the utmost, three or four adjoining ones, the exterior walls of which are not, in any case, separated from the earth, and have neither windows nor doors visible.

The objects which have been discovered exactly resemble those in the neighbourhood of Mosul, but occur in greater numbers.  Besides these, I saw several idols and sphynxes in stone.  The former represented animals with human heads; their size was gigantic—­about that of an elephant.  Four of these statues have been found, two of which were, however, considerably damaged.  The others were not indeed in very good preservation, although sufficiently so to show that the sculptors did not particularly excel in their profession.  The sphynxes were small, and had unfortunately suffered more damage than the bulls.

Shortly before my arrival, an obelisk of inconsiderable height, a small and uninjured sphynx, together with other remains, had been sent to England.

The excavations near Tel-Nimroud have been discontinued about a year, and Mr. Layard has been recalled to London.  An order was afterwards given to cover in the places which had been dug open, as the wandering Arabs had begun to do a great deal of injury.  When I visited the spot, some places were already covered in, but the greater part remained open.

The excavations near Nebbi Yunus are still being carried on.  An annual grant is made by the British government for this purpose.

The English resident at Baghdad, Major Rawlinson, had made himself perfectly master of the cuneiform character.  He reads the inscriptions with ease, and many of the translations are the results of his labours.