This is especially true of the tract between the Shat-el-Hie and the lower Tigris, a district which, according to the geographers, abounds with ruins.

No doubt the most extensive and most striking of the old cities have been visited; for of these Europeans are sure to hear through the reports of natives.

But it is more than probable that a number of the most interesting sites remain unexplored, and even unvisited; for these are not always either very extensive or very conspicuous.

The process of gradual disintegration is continually lowering the height of the Chaldaean ruins; and depressed mounds are commonly the sign of an ancient and long-deserted city.

Such remains give us an insight into the character of the early people, which it is impossible to obtain from ruins where various populations have raised their fabrics in succession upon the same spot.
[Illustration: PLATE 4] The cities here enumerated may not perhaps, in all cases, have existed in the Chaldaean period.