On the 28th of June the caravan reached Erbil, the ancient Arbela, where
Alexander the Great defeated Darius and his Persian host. Next day they
crossed a broad river, on rafts of inflated skins, fastened together with
poles, and covered with reeds, canes, and plank. Rapidly traversing the
shrubless, herbless plains of Mesopotamia, they reached at length the
town of Mosul, the point from which travellers proceed to visit the ruins
of Nineveh.

These have been so carefully explored and ably described by Layard and
the late George Smith, that it is needless to quote Madame Ida Pfeiffer's
superficial observations at any length. According to Strabo, Nineveh was
the greatest city in the Old World--larger even than Babylon; the
circumference of its walls was a three days' journey, and those walls
were defended by fifteen hundred towers. Now all is covered with earth,
and the ranges of hills and mounds that stretch across the wide gray
plain on the bank of the Tigris do but cover the ruins of the vast
Assyrian capital. Mr. Layard began his excavations in 1846, and his
labourers, digging deep into the hills, soon opened up spacious and
stately apartments, the marble walls of which were embellished from top
to bottom with sculptures, revealing a complete panorama of Assyrian
life! Kings with their crowns and sceptres, gods swooping on broad
pinions, warriors equipped with their arms and shields, were there; also
stirring representations of battles and hunting expeditions, of the
storming of fortresses, of triumphal processions; though, unfortunately
for artistic effect, neither proportion, perspective, nor correct drawing
had been observed. The hills are scarcely three times higher than the
men; the fields reach to the clouds; the trees are no taller than the
lotus-flowers; and the heads of men and animals are all alike, and all in
profile. Intermingled with these scenes of ancient civilization are
inscriptions of great interest, in the cuneiform or wedge-shaped