tablets were lying on ledges of unbaked clay, serving as shelves for these imperishable Old Babylonian records. The total number of tablets rescued from different parts of the ruins during the present campaign amounts even now to more than twenty-one thousand, and is rapidly increased by new finds every day. The contents of this extraordinary library are as varied as possible. Lists of Sumerian words and cuneiform signs, arranged according to different principles, and of fundamental value for our knowledge of the early non-Semitic language of the country, figure prominently in the new 'find.' As regards portable antiquities of every description, and their archeological value, the American expedition stands readily first among the three expeditions at present engaged in the exploration of Ancient Babylonia and the restoration of its past history." Three weeks later he added: "The Temple Library, as indicated in the writer's last report, has been definitely located at the precise spot which, in 1889, the present writer pointed out as its most probable site. Nearly eighteen thousand cuneiform documents have been rescued this year from the shelves of a series of rooms in its southeastern and northwestern wings. The total number of tablets (mostly of a didactic character) obtained from the library up to date is from twenty-five thousand to twenty-six thousand tablets (whole and broken). In view, however, of more important other duties to be executed by this expedition before we can leave Nippur this year, and in consideration of the enormous amount of time and labor required for a methodical exploration of the whole mound in which it is concealed, I have recently ordered all the gangs of Arabic workmen to be withdrawn from this section of ancient Nippur, and to be set at work at the eastern fortification line of the city, close to the temple-complex proper. According to a fair estimate based upon actual finds, the unique history of the temple, and topographical indications, there must be hidden at least from a hundred thousand to a hundred and fifty thousand tablets more in this ancient library, which was destroyed by the invading Elamites about the time of Abraham's emigration from Ur of the Chaldees. Only about the twentieth part of this library (all of Dr. Haynes's previous work included) has so far been examined and excavated."