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

116 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
twenty-two years from England, this gallant officer was on
his way home. Accompanied by a single servant, he had
made the trip from Baghdad to Mosul, generally counted
eight to twelve days, in less than seventy-two hours, a feat
reminding us vividly of his famous ride between Poonah
and Panwell, 1 when still a young and ambitious lieutenant
in India (1832). Unfortunately, in the present case, Rawlinson's
extraordinary exertion, at a time when his health
had suffered considerably from hard mental work and the
effect of a semi-tropical climate, proved too much for his
weakened constitution. For several days he was seriously
ill at Mosul, unable to do more than to pay a hasty visit to
Lavard's excavations before his departure.
The work at Ooyunjuk and Nimrud proceeded regularly
under the supervision of efficient native overseers. No
longer embarrassed by those difficulties and molestations
from the governor and the inhabitants of the country which
had taxed their patience and energy so often during the previous
campaign, Layard and Rassam spent their time generally
between the two places, unless
absent on one of their
numerous exploration tours to the Sinjar and the banks of
the Khabur, to Khorsabad and Bavian, to the rock sculptures
of Gunduk, and the cuneiform inscriptions of Wan, to
the ruins of Babylon and Nuffar, or to any of the
different
Assyrian sites in their immediate neighborhood. Following
the example of Layard, who wisely abstained from
relating, day bv dav, the further progress of his labors, we
will now sketch brieflv the principal discoveries which characterized
the English operations in the two great ruins of
Nineveh and Calah during the years 1849-51.
The ruins of Oovunjuk had practically been only scratched
bv Botta and Layard in their nervous attempts at disclosing
sculptured remains in some part of the large mound.
It was now decided to submit the whole complex to an
1
Distance, 72 miles ; time occupied, 3 hours, 7 minutes.