'Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh; with Journal of a Voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad and an Account of a Visit to Shirauz and Persepolis.' [‎57] (84/450)

CH. XIV.] HIGH MOUNDS AND BANKS.
57
Avails, which are built on it, at the mount between
stations 3 and 4, and runs all along that side of the
area, exhibiting in some places the strata of concre
tion, which may not be building. It is not so
unequivocal as the specimens in the hollow way.
We passed through the wall and then rode over
alluvial soil covered with pebbles washed down
from the higher grounds, the banks of which were
from about fifteen to twenty and thirty feet high.
They advanced outwards from the mount above station
3, in a northerly direction, sometimes descending
very gradually into the lower ground, and sometimes
more abrupt and broken, where it shows a table or
stratum of concretion, about five feet thick, and ten
or tilteen above the alluvial soil, which is horizontal,
and seems to run through the whole of the country.
Ihe country is likewise much furrowed by rain, run
ning oft the higher and harder ground down towards
the river; and on the edge or step, especially, is worn
into hills, by the yielding and crumbling down of
the gravel. In such a country it is not easy to say
precisely what are ruins and what are not; what is
art converted by the lapse of ages into a semblance
oi nature, and what is merely nature broken by the
hand of time into ruins, approaching in their appear
ance those of art.
M e went to the tomb of Sheikh Ahmed, which I
had set with my compass from many points. It is