The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-06 00:00:00

Tilt 1.41_ ESs,

hope that the advantage offered by Enpatoria as a base of
operations will no longer be neglected, and that the allies
will act on the Russian rear from that point. It is said
that Simferopol is quite open, and that no field-works or
redoubts have been erected to protect it The
rumours of a move are dying gradually away, and the army
bas made up its mind to remain quietly in winter quarters.
The preposterous on dit is that the generals have sent
home for instructions !

---
It is certain, nevertheless, that a strong French
force had embarked at Kamiesch for Eupatoria:—

Troops have been embarking, both yesterday and to-
day, at Kamiesch, and it is understood that they are to
proceed to Eupatoria. Five French divisions are to leave,
it is said, Eupatoria, and to march southwards, with the
intention of meeting and combining with a corresponding
force advancing from the south. The only English divi-
sions which have received orders to hold themselves in
readiness to move as yet are the first and second, but other
divisions expect to receive orders of the same nature.—
D. News Cor., Sept. 22.

There appears to be some doubt whether the Eng•
lish army would share in the Eupatorian expedition,
for at the last moment on the 22nd this correspon-
dent writes : . .

The expected movement of our three divisions for
Enpatoria bee not yet taken place ; though the report still
continues to be circulated, and believed, that it will not be
much longer delayed. We are in the habit of taking
fresh steps in any direction so slowly, and apparently with
such an expenditure of deliberation, that this lapse of some
five or six days between the intimation of such an intention
as a hasty flank movement on the enemy and its execution
is not necessarily any proof of its having been abandoned. I
am myself the more disposed to believe that it will still take
place, from the fact that two regiments of French cavalry
sailed from Ksmiesch for the north coast on Thursday
afternoon, and were to be followed immediately by fifteen
thousand infantry for the same destination. This is a
carrying out, so far, of the concerted movement in which
camp rumour declares our own first, third, and fourth divi-
sions are to take a part; and it may still, therefore, be pre-
sumed that their despatch for the scene of the allied opera-
tion en pleine champagne will take place all in good time.

MOVEMENTS OF THE RUSSIANS.
The enemy still keep their movements and inten-
tions secret. It was tolerably clear, however, that
the state of their supplies alone would determine
them whether to retreat from their northern position
or to hold their ground. The Times correspondent
(Sept. 17th) has these speculations:—

If they have sufficient provisions and ammunition col-
lected for the winter, they may throw a part of their troops
into the north forts, and withdraw the rest to form the
basis of a new army for the spring. Protected on the west
by strong batteries towards the sea, on the north side by
the high banks of the Belbeck, on the east by the steep
Plateau of Inkermann, and towards the harbour by the
casemated forts and new earthworks, having the winter in
their favour, during which no siege operations can be
carried on, their troops, shut up, may hold out until the
arrival of fresh troops in spring, the more especially as it
would require a great number of troops to invest their
position. But if one remembers the difficulties which they
had during the last winter, when their communications on
all sides were open, to provide themselves with provisions,
it is not very probable that they laid up large stores for
this year ; besides this, the fall of the south side must have
considerably shaken their morale, and morale is an indis-
pensable condition for the garrison of an invested place.
At present, however, they appear to use the rerpite
afforded them in making every disposition for the defence
of the Northern Plateau, though it would really seem that
they intended to withdraw altogether from the north side,
as numbers of troops and large convoys have been seen
passing inland on the Simferopol road, and their prepara-
tions for the defence of the north side, such as the great
concentration of troops on the Inkermann Plateau, and the
activity with which they have begun to throw up batteries
on all the more commanding points of the harbour and of
the plateau. have only been looked at as so many contri
vances for better effecting their retreat.

The same correspondent, under date of the 22nd,
states his full belief that the Russians are perfectly
capable of retaining their present position :
The recent heavy rains will fill all the wells and swell
the water•conrses of this district, and it will no longer be
untenable by large bodies of men. Having secured their
right flank by the very formidable earthworks and bat-
teries which we are permitting the enemy even yet to
erect, in addition to their former defences and to their
regllar forts, the Russians will now no doubt direct the
bulk of their army to protect their centre ever the Tacher-
nays, and their left at Aitodor and on the Upper Belbeck.
They seem prepared to hold this extensive line, and we
appear at present by no means prepared or willing to
attack it. As the allies can scarcely spare men enough to
send to Eupatoria, and thence to march on Simferopol, or to
force the Russian position on the Belbeck by a corps de.
scending on them from the north, and as there is no
apparent intention of attacking them from Inkermann or
the Tschernava, this dead lock may last longer than we
think, and is likely enough not to be relaxed this winter.
The quantity of stores removed by the Russians from the
north side to their new depot shows that they are not in
want of provisions, unless they take the trouble to carry
dummy sacks and fill their carts with "makebelieves." It
may and must be difficult for them to feed their army, hut,
somehow or other, they do so. They left considerable
quantities of food behind them in the city; large flocks
and herds (many of which, however, may be araba oxen)
stud the plains near the citadel. The soldiers who fell
into the hands of the Sardinians and French on the 16th

of August carried abundance of bread and spirits, and we
hear they had meat and plenty of everything except water,
when they came down to attack the allies. If the worst
comes to them, the stomach of the Mujik soldier is as well
able to wrestle with arabs ox beef as the stomachs of the
hungry Highlanders, who did not despise that very mus-
cular fibre one day after our landing at Gallipoli ; so that
altogether, I am not so very sanguine as to think the Rus.
sians will be forced to abandon their position on the
approach of winter. The country around them will supply
abundance of wood, and they are skilled in making coin.
fortable and warm underground huts ; so that, compare'.
tively speaking, they will be as well housed and warm as
the allies, supposing the latter succeed in getting up huts
before the winter sets in. Leaving them alone will never
drive a Russian army out of the field ; the only thing to do
that is the French and English bayonet.

This new depot is somewhere to the north-east of
Sebastopol, in the direction of the Belbeck ; but it is
not certainly ascertained that the carts which remove
the stores unload them :

On the contrary, it seems as if carts from the interior
came down from Simferopol, and deposited stores at this
locality, which must be somewhere in the neighbourhood
of Kamischli. The carts from the north side, which are
now apparently occupied in carrying away provisions, keep
along the road which passes the citadel and winds along
the top of the ridge near the sea, and when they descend
that ridge they are lost to sight, and do not reappear. If
they were going to the new depot they would keep far
more away to our right, and take the road which is nearly
parallel to the northern side of the roadstead of Sebas-
topol. These carts are to be seen not only at the great
storehouse between Fort Catherine and Hollandia, but at
the citadel and at Fort Constantine, and it would seem as
if they came empty and went away heavily laden. The
number of them is endless. They are not creeking lum-
bering arabas drawn by oxen, but light, well appointed
military carriages driven by soldiers, and excellently horsed,
as is rendered quite apparent by the speed with which
they travel when a rocket or a bomb is pitched at them
from the south side. The large magazine which the
enemy seems most solicitous to empty is a very spacious
pile of buildings of dark grey stone, with small windows,
and is not unlike a prison or penitentiary. The sides
form a square, but we cannot ascertain what is in the yard
in the centre. There is a quay before it, along which
horses, carts, and men rush at full speed whenever the
French take it in their heads to annoy them.—lb.

THE NORTH AND SOUTH BATTERIES.
On the north side the Russians make frequent wig
of their batteries, and throw shot and shell into the
town with effect, though only occasionally :
They are not to be always trusted, however, for if a knot
of officers or horsemen collect in one place they unel
pectedly send a shell or shot among them, and now and
then do a little mischief to the remains of their own town.
They could sweep some of the chosen look-out places with
grape, but it is believed they are waiting fur a grand
collection of generals, staff officers, and officers to
astonish us all with a broadside some fine day. The
paymaster, Rifle Brigade, was slightly wounded by a shell
from the north side, and his horse was killed at the same
time.—lb.

The French are not bebindhand, for, in addition
to a breaching battery which they are constructing
between Fort Nicholas and the ruins of Fort Alex-
ander, to act against Fort Constantine on the north,
they have established a mortar battery behind Fort
Nicholas, with which they shell the Russian working
parties:—

The latter fort affords excellent cover, though it
is rather avoided, in consequence of a popular belief that
it is extensively mined, and will go up some fine day with
a crowd of distinguished visitors. In spite of the flames
it is intact, and does not in any way justify the assertions
of those travellers who maintained that the Russian case-
mated forts would crumble to pieces, or would smother the
gunners with smoke. The casemates are open, with fine
airy galleries behind, and the whole building is most
admirably and compactly built. In the same way Fort
Alexander is comparatively but little injured, although the
mines underneath exploded with a tremendous crash. The
walls of the fort are still erect. Fort Paul alone is in per-
fect ruins.—lb.

From this mortar battery the French keep up a
constant fire against the quadrangular storehouse,
and the Times correspondent of the 22nd gives a
lively description of the effect of the shell practice
upon the Russian working parties :

It was amusing to watch the coolness of the fellows at
work inside the large magazine to-day. Some of then
usually stood in the doorway by the waterside to look out
for the mortars. " Boni " goes one, and the thick white
smoke flies upwards in a circling pillar, marked here and
there with whirling rings. " T-wit I twit ! twit l" the bomb
whistles aloft, the sound becoming fainter and fainter as it
leaves us, till it begins to grow on the ear of the gentleman
in grey, who is on the watch at the other side; he pops
his head, and out come at his summons, like rabbits actft
tling from a ferret-haunted warren, a swarm of his comrades,
just as the bomb, with a prodigious crash, and knocking op
a cloud of tiles, timber, atones, and dirt, rushes through
the roof, and bursts inside ; they are down on their faces
in a moment, and the bits fly over them, and strike the
earth far inland, or dash the water of the harbour into
foam. Then the " Itooskies" get up and return placidly
to their work inside till the next bomb comes dangerously
near. If it does not fall inside the building, or is not
likely to slip down on them through the roof, the fellows
never stir out,