not now produce fruit further north than the junction of the Lesser Zab with the Tigris, and does not abound, as formerly, on account of the want of cultivation and of settled habitations. It is raised inland as far north as the small town of Taza Kurmali, which takes its name-'the place of fresh dates-from the ripe fruit being there first met with on the road from Constantinople. That the fruit was exported in large quantities from the Babylonian plains, as it now is, as an article of commerce, may be inferred from palm-wine, or spirits extracted from the date, being mentioned by Herodotus as the principal cargo brought by rafts to Babylon from Armenia.

"The lofty mountains, which rise abruptly from the plains, occasion opposite degrees of temperature in Assyria. The soil is naturally rich, and its produce as varied as plentiful. The plains watered by the rivers are parched by a heat almost rivalling that of the torrid zone. Aromatic herbs, yielding perfumes celebrated by the poets, indigo, opium, and the sugar-cane, besides corn and grain of various kinds, and cotton and flax in abundance, were raised in this region. Indigo and opium are still cultivated, but the sugar-canes, which, in the time of the Persian Kings, covered the banks of the rivers of Susiana, have now disappeared. In the cooler temperature of the hills, the mulberry afforded sustenance to the silkworm, and many kinds of fruit-trees flourished in the valleys. The vine is represented in the sculptures, and Rabshakeh described his country to the Jews as a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive-oil and of honey.' 2 Kings xviii. 32. Amongst the objects of tribute brought to the Egyptians from the people of these countries, are corn, bread, palm-wine, wine, honey, incense, and conserve of dates. The domestic animals of the ancient Assyrians were probably such as are still found in the country . . . sheep, goats, oxen, horses, mules, and camels."-LAYARD'S Nineveh.