The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-13 00:00:00

PREPARATIONS IN SEBASTOPOL.

The Constantinople journals of the 27th contain
letters from the camp of the 24th, which give a few
details of interest concerning the preparations in
Sebastopol for the erection of batteries, &c. A cor-
respondent writes as follows :

In speaking of the military operations, I forgot to
mention that large batteries were being erected beyond
the Redan, and that very shortly a fire will be opened from
it against the northern part. From what I see Sebastopol
is about to become the centre of operations, but I think
that it will be a very arduous task to make the town al all
supportable. It is said to be in contemplation to bring the
railway into the place ; there is rather a long slope on the
side of Inkermann which will much facilitate that opera-
tion. Mr. Beattie, the director of the line, has made
several surveys during the last few days, which will, I hope,
be attended with good results. There was in the first ac-
counts considerable exaggeration as to the number of
bodies of Russian soldiers found half consumed in the
midst of the ruins of the burnt houses, and it was added
also that several French soldiers, having become intoxica-
Gated after entering the town, had perished in the ruins.
A rigid examination has been made into the matter, and it
has been ascertained that very few Russians lost their
lives in that manner, and as to the accidents which have
happened to the French since the taking of the place,
either from imprudence or any other cause, they do not
exceed eighteen.

In spite of this doubt that the town will be sup-
portable under the fire of the northern batteries,
tradesmen and cantiniers press for permissions to
open hotels and stores in the town :
The governors of the town are literally besieged with
demands from the tradesmen and merchants at Kamiesch
and Balaklava, for permission to open branch-establishmeuts
at Sebastopol. They all solicit permission to occupy the
shops, and some persons have applied for authorisation to
reopen two or three hotels (the signs of which are still up),
and which they offer to repair at their own expense. The
establishment of two or three comfortable houses of this
kind would be very desirable, and they are in fact becom-
ing necessary, as tourists are flocking to Sebastopol.
Another correspondent, who is clearly a Frenchman,
remarks upon the number of " eccentric " tourists
who daily visit Sebastopol :
Every day intrepid horsewomen may be seen riding
through the streets and promenades of the town, and many
of these eccentric tourists, who are evidently English, have
inscribed their names on the walls of the principal buildings.
—M. Pose, Sept. 22.

KAMIESCH UNDER THE FRENCH.
The French, with their usual rapid self-adaptation
to circumstances, have established quite a neat little
town at their head-quarters in lieu of the straggling
rows of broken wooden sheds which hitherto crowded
Kamiesch :

Regularly laid-out streets of substantial and neatly-built
wooden houses have been erected along the whole face of the
slope running up from the northern shore of the bay, and in
these are to be seen shops filled with every variety of eatable,
drinkable, and wearable merchandise ; behind the counters
of which, too, buxom Marseillaises or Parisiennes may be
seen dealing out creature-comforts to groups of red-coated
ensigns and lieutenants, whom they daily bewitch all the
way from the English camp, to listen to their merry laugh,
and drink in unsettling poison from their wicked but
lustrous black eyes. What if mademoiselle charges her
delighted customer sixty shillings a dozen for yin ordi.
naire, or, in the prettiest broken English in the world—to
which her juvenile admirers will persist in replying in still
more disjointed French—recommends her Medoe (?), at
four guineas the case ; is it in British human nature, es-
pecially on the green side of twenty-five, to h e for
prilos with so shaming a piskpookott e an 4

ber employer both know that it is not, and wax rich ac•
cordingly. Indeed, with some few exceptions, it is only at
liannesch that the face of womankind is to be seen at all ;
and to the fact that many a pretty specimen of " that
same " may be there gated at till the gazer is content, for
the trifling premium of some forty per cent. of extortion on
what he buys, the place, 1 am disposed to think, owes a
large proportion of its English and most profitable trade.
Substantial wooden landing•wharfs line the shore of the
bay, and behind these run rows of army stores, numerous
and capacious enough, one would fancy, to bold victualling
std other supplies for the whole allied force before Sebaa-
topold—D. News Got., Sept. 24.