The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-03 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 3, 1855.

tures, and religious relics, the officers with their swords,
the men with their belts and provisions ; but it is for-
bidden to enter the precincts of the shattered fortress,
which is still covered with a canopy of black smoke, as
the governor and a few desperate men are grimly watch-
ing till the troops come in to fire the mine and involve all
in a common ruin. He has not surrendered, but he has
been abandoned by his garrison, who did not desire the
honours of such martyrdom as a few hours' further resist-
ance would have certainly insured. A gloomy and terrible
picture. This fanatic old warrior, surrounded by dead
and dying and wounded, waiting in his lair in darkness
barely dispelled by the lurid light of the burning fortress
tall his enemy comes near that he may destroy and be
avenged! Heavy as the fire has been from time to time
during the bombardments of Sebastopol, and the great
throes of the struggle which began there just one twelve.
month ago, it never was anything like that opened by the
allied fleets in force, intensity, din, or grandeur.—Time
Cor., Oct. 17th.
The strength of Kinbum was nothing in comparison
to the force brought against it:—

As well as I can make out, there are in Kinburn Fort
ay-one guns mounted en barbette, inside and in the out-
w irks, sit flanking guns in casemates, and twelve wortars,
and of these twenty-nine are dismounted, smashed, or
disabled in gun or carriage. In the Centre Spit Battery
there are ten guns, of which two are disabled, and in
the Spit, or North Battery, there are ten guns, of
which three are smashed. We arrived just in time to
prevent the latter work from assuming most trouble-
s •me dimensions, for the casemates were ready for nine
sure guns, and the platforms indicated they would be
of large calibre. The guns in Kinhurn were long eighteens
and twenty-fours, of great weight and thickness, and some
o' ancient date ; but they had a small park of guns inside
ready for mounting. Some of the others were of IS5`l,
and the piles of shot and shell and stores of ammunition
of all kinds were enormous in proportion to the size of the
p ace.—lb„
The success of the floating batteries at a range of
800 yards was satisfactory :

The success of the experiment is complete. The shot
of the enemy at that short range had no effect upon them!
The balls hopped back off their sides, without.leaving any
impression, save such as a pistol-ball makes on the target
in a shooting-gallery. The shot could be heard distinctly
striking the sides of the battery with a " sharp smack,"
and then could be seen flying back, splashing the water at
v.rious angles according to the direction iu which they
came, till they dropped exhausted. On one battery there
are visible the dints of sixty-three shots against the plates
of one side, not counting the marks of others which have
glanced along the decks or struck the edges and angles of
the bulwarks, and all the damage that has been done to it
is the slight starting of three rivets. The men are all
below, except a look-out man, in a shot-proof box on deck,
and the casualties arose from a chance shot which came
through the ports.—Tomes cur., Oct. 18.