Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

DURING 19TH CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 93
excavations. Who was happier than Layard ! Without
a
servant, and without any other effects than a pair of large
saddle-bags, but with a cheerful heart, and, above all, with
this modest sum in his pocket, increased by a few pounds
from his own meagre resources, he started in October, i 845,
to excavate Nineveh. How eagerly Layard turned his face
towards the place in which all his hopes had centred for
the past five years we may easily infer from the fact that,
like a Tartar, he travelled by day and night without rest,
crossing the mountains of Kurdistan and galloping over the
plains of Assyria, until he reached Mosul, twelve days after
his departure from Samsun.
First Expedition, iSjj-iSjf. Profiting by the experience
of Botta, Layard deemed it
best for the time being to
conceal the real object of his journey from the ill-disposed
governor and the inhabitants of Mosul. On the 8th of
November, having secretly procured a few tools, he left the
town with " guns, spears, and other formidable weapons,"
ostensibly to hunt wild boars in a neighboring district.
Accompanied by Mr. Ross, a British resident merchant,
who in many ways facilitated the work of our explorer during
his long stay in Assyria, and by a mason and two servants,
he floated down the Tigris on a small raft, reaching Nimrud
the same night. With six untrained Arabs, he commenced
work at two different points of the ruins on the following
morning. Like the mounds of Khorsabad, the ruins of
Nimrud represent a clearly defined rectangular parallelogram,
rising above the ground as a plateau of considerable
height and extent, and pointing with its
two smaller sides to
the north and south respectively. A lofty cone, from the
distance strikingly resembling a mountain of volcanic origin,
and constituting the most characteristic feature of this
conglomeration of furrowed hills, occupies their northwest
corner. During the early spring the whole mound is
clothed with a luxuriant growth of grass and many-colored