Note 121 — Chapter XVIII

It is in the space comprised between two of the eastern tributaries of the Tigris, the Khaus and the Great Zab, or Abou Selman of the Arabs, that the extensive ruins of Koyunjik, Khorsabad, and especially of Nimroud, are situated, the last of which have been so satisfactorily identified with the capital of Assyria—the ancient Nineveh—by our enterprising and talented countryman Mr. Layard, to whose exertions, under circumstances of peculiar difficulty, surrounded by every privation, our national Museum is indebted for that magnificent collection of Assyrian monuments which at this moment forms the admiration of the British public. It is to be hoped that our Government will follow up the researches commenced by Mr. Layard, and that several of the gigantic sculptures removed by him, with such perseverance and labour, to Bussorah, will ere long be added to the riches of the British Museum.

See Mr. Layard’s work on “Nineveh and its Remains,” 2 vols. 8vo., and his illustrated work in folio—the former one of the most interesting narratives ever published on the antiquities of Central Asia.