Egypt and Assyria preserved in our Museums. The Bronze Gates being now almost all repaired and ready to be photographed, the work of reproduction for the first part of the book has been commenced.

Besides the presentations of the publications of the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquaries, the Geological Society, the Royal Geographical Society, and many others, the Society is indebted to the kindness of different authors for a number of valuable donations of their works to the Library; of these there may be particularly mentioned, various publications by M. Eugène Revillout, Prof. Maspero, M.M. Schrader, J. Menant, Clermont-Ganneau, J. de Horrack, F. J. Lauth, and P. Pierret. In order to make the Library of the Society of more value to the members, the Council placed during last year, at the disposal of the Librarian and Secretary, a sum of money for the purchase of such books as were required for the immediate use of the members. The titles of those thus acquired will be found printed in the different numbers of the Proceedings. The Zeitschrift für Aegyptische Sprache, the Revue Archæologique, and other works are now subscribed for by the Society and lie on the Library table. Although this has been done by the Council, it is still felt how inadequate are the funds at their disposal for this purpose, to supply all that is required to keep the Library up to a proper standard; and it is very much to be desired that members having spare copies of their own works, and those of others, would present them to the Society, and thus assist in realising the purpose for which the Library was originally formed.

It will have been noticed that the précis of the meetings of the Society, the last series of which, completing the Session 1877-78, was printed at the end of Volume VI. of the Transactions, have been discontinued; they are now embodied in the Proceedings, which also contain the presentations to the Library, and where important a short abstract of the discussions brought out by the various papers read before the Society. These Proceedings were commenced in order to place permanently on record any valuable remarks that were made, and to place those members residing away from London, and therefore unable to attend the monthly meetings, as nearly as possible in the same position as the resident members, by supplying them with a more or less full report of each meeting. Proofs of each number are circulated at the meetings, and after revision, &c., are

sent to every member at least a week before the next meeting of the Society. It is hoped that as the funds at the disposal of the Council increase, this publication may assume even a more permanent form, and by the addition of Bibliographical and other notes, become in time, what may be considered a Journal of Biblical Archæology.

The audited Balance Sheet annexed shows that, including £153 11s. 8d., brought forward from the last year's account, the total income has been £662 13s. Id., while the expenditure, which discharges all liabilities up to date, has been £479 14s. 10d.; a balance of £182 18s. 3d. is thus carried forward to the current year, and will be at once appropriated to the production of Part 1 of Vol. VII. of the Transactions. In this or the succeeding Part it is intended to produce a corpus of the Hamathite Inscriptions from types made expressly for the purpose, and thus facilitate the studies of those enquirers devoting themselves to the deciphering of these as yet untranslated monuments.

THE PRESIDENT in commenting on the prosperous condition of the Society, and the important work of the past year, expressed a hope that the Council would be able to carry out their intention of issuing three parts of the Transactions in place of the usual two; the favourable condition of the finances appearing to justify this.

The Secretary's Report and Balance Sheet were then unanimously adopted.

A vote of thanks to the President, Hon. Secretary, and Secretary, for their valuable services to the Society, was moved in flattering terms by Mr. R. N. Cast, and seconded by the Rev. A. Löwy, and replied to by the Hon. Secretary, Mr. Arthur Cates, who especially referred to the obligation which the Society owed the Secretary, Mr. W. H. Rylands, for the enthusiastic manner in which he had devoted himself to advance the interests of the Society, with the happiest results; and urged that with the cordial assistance of the members the Society might be placed in the position of being the centre of inter-communication in England, for the subjects within its range, and to perhaps establish the means of advancing the early studies of those about to take up the study of Hieroglyphics or Cuneiform, and of encouraging by such aids a renewed attention to those subjects which were now too much neglected in England.

STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31ST, 1879.

75 0 0 I II

6

LIABILITIES.

The following Officers and Council were elected for the

current year:—

President.

S. Birch, D.C.L., LL.D., F.S. A., &c.

Vice-Presidents.

Rev. Frederick Charles Cook, M.A. Canon of Exeter.

Rev. George Currey, D.D.

Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., D.C.L.

Sir William Gregory, C.B., G.C.S.I.

The Right Hon. the Earl of Harrowby, K.G., D.C.L.

The Right Reverend Joseph Barber Lightfoot, D.D., &c.,
Bishop of Durham.

Walter Morrison.

Charles T. Newton, C.B., D.C.L.

Sir Charles Nicholson, Bart., D.C.L., M.D.

Rev. George Rawlinson, D.D., Canon of Canterbury.
Sir Henry C. Rawlinson, K.C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c.
Very Rev. Robert Payne Smith, Dean of Canterbury.

Rev. Joseph Angus.

Rev. Charles James Ball, M.A.

Rev. Canon Beechey, M.A.
Walter Besant, M.A.

Thomas Christy.

Richard Cull, F.S.A.

Robert Cust, F.R.A.S.

C. Drury Fortnum, F.S.A.

Council.

H. H. Howorth, F.S.A.
Rev. Albert Löwy.

Prof. E. L. Lushington, D.C.L.,
LL.D., &c.

J. Manship Norman, M.A.
Hormuzd Rassam.

P. le Page Renouf.

Joseph Sidebotham, F.S. A.

Sir Hardinge Stanley Giffard, M. P. Prof. W. Erasmus Wilson, F.R.S.

Charles Harrison, F.S.A.

Honorary Treasurer.

Bernard T. Bosanquet.

Secretary.

W. Harry Rylands, F.S.A.

Honorary Secretary.

Arthur Cates.

Hon. Secretary for Foreign Correspondence.

Rev. A. H. Sayce, M.A.

Honorary Librarian.

William Simpson, F.R.G.S.

The following communication, giving an account of the Monuments and Inscriptions on the Rocks on the Nahr-elKelb River, Syria, by W. St. Chad Boscawen, was read by the Honorary Secretary :

This communication, sent by Mr. Boscawen from Beyrout, was the result of two excursions made on the 25th of September and 1st of October last to the pass of the Nahr-el-Kelb, or Dog River. After mentioning some of the interesting objects on the route the writer went on to describe the position and other particulars of the nine Tablets cut into the face of the rock at this place.

Some notice having been taken of the descriptions of the Tablets by earlier explorers, Mr. Boscawen added a lengthy one of his own, commencing the examination with the tablet immediately opposite the ford, and proceeding in a reverse direction from that taken in visiting them from Beyrout. This order was chosen as the writer felt convinced that certainly as regards the Assyrian Monuments there was a chronological sequence, commencing with Tablets Nos. 2 and 3, of the early Assyrian Empire (B.C. 1300-1050), and terminating in Tablet No. 9, at the highest point of the ancient roadway, with a royal record of Essarhaddon (B.C. 681). The Tablet (No. 1) is Egyptian, erected by Ramses II.; and it is this one which bears the French inscription recording the presence of the French army of occupation. The next in the series (Nos. 2 and 3) are Assyrian ; and are attributed, by Mr. Boscawen, the first to Assur-ris-ilim (?) (B.C. 1140), and the second to Tiglath-Pileser I. (B.C. 1100), who, according to his inscriptions, after his successful expedition against the Syrians and the subjugation of Carchemish, visited the western Lebanon, at which time he would probably come into the region of the Nahr-el-Kelb.

Thirty yards higher up the pass, where the Egypto-Assyrian roadway joins the lower one, facing north-west, is placed the third Assyrian Tablet (No. 4). The opinion was expressed that it paired with Tablet No. 5-also Assyrian-and that they were to be respectively assigned to Assur-nazir-pal (B.c. 885) and Shalmaneser II. (B.C. 860), the latter being the King who erected the splendid bronze. gates at the Temple at Balawat. Mention is made in the inscriptions of this King, of images of his royalty having been erected in the