Note 4 — Chapter XVII · OUR SOJOURN IN THE CRATER OF NIMRUD

I have taken my reader a long ride, round the vast circumference of the crater—an excursion which, when presented in the form of a narrative, may be too tedious for his taste. Let me therefore endeavour to present in a summary manner some of the conclusions which were engendered in our minds. Faithful to the laws of eruptive volcanic agency, this huge crater has arisen on the margin of a great depression of the surface of the tableland. In spite of the considerable difference in their present elevation, the lake of Van and the plain of Mush may be regarded as parts of a single basin. Indeed it is mainly due to the emissions of lava from Nimrud that the lake is now separated from the plain. The region on the north of the crater is considerably higher, though in closer connection with the lake than with the plain. Nature has produced this manifestation of violence in the stress of her effort to complete a harmonious design. The curving over of the great lines of mountain-making has resulted in this explosion of forces, usually under control. But as we make our way in silence beneath the stillness of the night, threading the chaos of tumultuous forms on the floor of the crater, we may yet reflect upon the relative insignificance of such violent action, even in a country where it has operated on so great a scale. The stratified rocks are seldom wholly absent in the landscapes, as they are wanting to the savage landscape of the Nimrud caldron; and, when you think you are admiring the long train of a volcano, a closer inspection reveals slowly-built, sedimentary mountains, upon which the volcano has been reared. Nature has preferred regularity of achievement, a quality reflected by the moral sense of Man.4