Agriculture, in the next tympanum, is symbolized solely in the fertile and well cultivated landscape which forms the background of her portion of the decoration. The chief duty of the Department of the Interior--to protect and control the Indians--is indicated in the background of the other half of the picture by a representation of the curious method of burial, if one may use the word, which prevails among certain of the western tribes--the body, lashed to a few poles for a bier, being laid away in the branches of a tree. In the last tympanum, that of War and the Navy, the terrace is nicked and shattered by the bullets of the enemy. The figure to the left, representing the Department of War, holds a regulation army sword, and the figure to the right a naval sword. To the left the two children are engaged in combat; one is falling, stained with blood, while the other presses upon him with a falchion, or Roman sword. The corresponding composition to the right is much the same; the chief difference being the trident which the victor aims at his opponent’s breast. War is accompanied by a Roman standard adapted to an American use by altering the old initials “S.P.Q.R.”--“The Senate and People of Rome”--to “U.S.A.” In the background is Bunker Hill Monument in Boston. On the other side are the masts of the recently constructed battleship _Indiana_, and a rostral column of the same sort as those used in the tympanum representing _Water_ in the Pavilion of the Elements, but in this case copied exactly from the one erected in honor of Commodore Decatur and afterwards removed to Annapolis, where it is now. The inscriptions on the tablets in the four tympanums may most conveniently be inserted here. In the west tympanum, that of the State and Treasury Departments, the quotations are as follows:-- ’Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world.--WASHINGTON. Let our object be our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country.--WEBSTER. Thank God I also am an American.--WEBSTER. In the north tympanum:-- Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political: peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations--entangling alliance with none.--THOMAS JEFFERSON. In the west tympanum:-- The agricultural interest of the country is connected with every other, and superior in importance to them all.--ANDREW JACKSON. Let us have peace.--U. S. GRANT. In the south tympanum:-- The aggregate happiness of society is, or ought to be, the end of all government.--WASHINGTON. To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.--WASHINGTON.