mented by bitumen, and was divided into layers of from 12 to 20 feet thick, by reeds. There are also remains of reservoirs, canals, and other works, that show the importance of this very ancient city.

CALNEH

was the last in order of the four cities that were the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom. Its site cannot be determined, but it is believed to be at what was afterwards Ctesiphon, on the banks of the Tigris, about 20 miles below Bagdad. Among the ruins found here are those of a remarkable ancient palace, now called Tauk Kesra, which struck the Arab conquerors with amazement and delight.

NINEVEH.

A SKETCH OF ITS HISTORY-ITS WONDERFUL RUINS AND

INSCRIPTIONS.

Far away in the East is a country, now inhabited principally by tribes of Nestorians, and roving bands of Arabs, that was once an empire whose power and magnificence were both the terror and marvel of the ancient world. The capital of this empire lay buried in the sands of the earth, with no certain marks of its sepulchre. The extent of our knowledge of the location of this city was no more than vague tradition— which said that it was hidden somewhere on the

river Tigris; but for many centuries it had existed only in name, a name that suggested the idea of an ancient capital of fabulous size and splendor, a walled city containing many fortifications, palaces, and temples; a city which had witnessed the tears of many princes and peoples, brought hither captive by its warlike kings.

After over two thousand years, the grave of this dead city was found, and its shroud of sand and ruin thrown off-revealing to an astonished world its temples, palaces, and idols-its tablets, covered with records of its conquests and power. The Nineveh in which the captive tribes of Israel had labored and wept, and against which the prophecies had gone forth, was, after a sleep of over twenty centuries, again brought to light; and the proofs of its ancient splen dor beheld by mortal eyes.

The site and ruins of this ancient city are on the river Tigris, 510 miles from its mouth, and 550 miles N. E. of Jerusalem. Nineveh was one of the oldest, largest, most powerful, and splendid cities in the world; and contained at one time a population of 600,000. Traditions of its unrivaled size and magnificence were equally familiar to the Greeks and Romans, and to the Arabian geographers.

The Assyrian Empire at one time included Media and Persia, and was then bounded on the north by the Caspian Sea and Armenia, on the east by Media, on the south by Arabia, on the s. w. and w. by the river Euphrates and Syria.

The Assyrians were one of the greatest commercial and manufacturing nations of the East. Assyria, from

its proximity to the Persian Gulf, with which it was connected by the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, naturally became the great highway of trade between the sea-faring nations of the Indian seas and Central Asia Consequently, Nineveh was a great centre of trade and manufactures, and here the merchants of nearly all the nations of the earth assembled.

Assyria was mentioned by Ezekiel as trading in "blue cloth and embroidered work." In these stuffe gold thread was introduced into the woof of many colors, and were the "dyed attire and embroidered work" so frequently mentioned in Scripture as the most costly and splendid garments of kings and princes. The cotton manufactures were equally celebrated and remarkable, and were mentioned by Pliny as the invention of Semiramis, who is mentioned by many writers of antiquity as having founded large weaving establishments along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. They also acquired the art of manufacturing glass; several bottles, and vases of elegant shape, were found among the ruins of the city.

The result of its immense trade, and the number of nations paying tribute to the kings of Assyria, was the accumulation of a vast amount of treasure in Nineveh, and the most extraordinary traditions were observed in antiquity, of the enormous amount of gold collected in that city.

As the recent discoveries of Botta and Layard, among the ruins of Nineveh, are exciting great interest and attention, a brief sketch of its history will help to render the subject intelligible. This city