It seems, however, a strong and almost a fatal objection to this theory, that no bases of pillars have been found within the apartments, nor any marks on the brick floors of such bases or of the pressure of the pillars.

M.Botta states that he made a careful search for bases, or for marks of pillars, on the pavement of the north-east hall (No.

VIII.) at Khorsabad, but that he _entirely failed to discover any_.

This negative evidence is the more noticeable as stone pillar-bases have been found in wide doorways, where they would have been less necessary than in the chambers, as pillars in doorways could have had but little weight to sustain.
M.Botta and Mr.Fergusson, who both suppose that in an Assyrian palace the entire edifice was roofed in, and only the courts left open to the sky, suggest two very different modes by which the buildings may have been lighted.

M.Botta brings light in from the roof by means of wooden _louvres_, such as are still employed for the purpose in Armenia and parts of India, whereof he gives the representation which is reproduced.
[PLATE XLVII., Fig.