The Press.
London, England, 1855-06-02 00:00:00

514

cnrred in the different hospitals. The weather is still nn-
broken, and we have it very warm now. Nothing of great
moment has occurred during the night. The Sardinians
continue to a►rive.

The Tiny, correspondent writes on the evening
of May 15:

The active operations of the siege are suspended for a
time; our batteries are complete, our works finished, but
the armament of them is not yet accomplished. Even the
French are tired of a useless cannonade, and there has not
been much firing for the last two nights. When the third
bombardment may begin it is impossible for me to say, but
at present no one pretends to indicate the period of its
occurrence. It is rumoured that another expedition may
be expected shortly, inasmuch as the Sardinians are im-
patient to do something, and orders have been issued to
our officers to provide themselves with the regulation
number of bit animals, which will be furnished to them by
the land transport corps. The Sardinians are accumu-
lating at Balaklava daily. Two or three steamers arrive
every, four•aud•twenty hours laden with those excellent and
soldierlike troops. They land all ready for the field, with
horses, carts, &c. Their transport cars are simple, strongly
made, covered vehicles, not unlike a London bread cart,
painted blue, with the words " Armata Sarda" in black
letters, and the name of the regiment to the service of
which it belongs. The officers are well mounted, and
every one admires the air and carriage of the troops, more
especially of the " Itersaglieri" (Chasseurs), and the eye
is attracted by their melodramatic head dress—a bandit-
looking hat, with a large plume of black cock's feathers in
the side. The officers of the corps wear a plume of green
ostrich feathers. lieneral de la Marmora and his staff
have arrived, and Lord Raglan has received him with
marked consideration. There are two fine Sardinian

steam frigates in Balaklava harbour, which came full of
troops ; and the Europa, Ckopatra, Ottawa, Pedestrian,
Tamar, Jec., have also arrived, so that there must be at least
t m thousand Sardinians in the Crimea at present.
Those nocturnal frights which went on so briskly last
week have ceased for the present. Although our losses
were not very heavy we were generally deprived of the ser-
vices of the best men. The old soldiers would go to the
front and were knocked over, and in that respect our losses
were serious. The enemy are repairing and strengthening
their batteries, and are busy throwing up new works inside
the town itself. It is not correct to say that there are any
earthworks about Sebastopol with tiers of guns in them;
indeed it would not be possible to construct earthworks
with guns placed one above the other in them. The ex-
pression applies rather to the fact that there are some
batteries formed on the slopes of hills, and that the in-
trenchmenta rise uplone inside the other, so that the inner
one is higher up on the hillside than that in front. of it. The
camp of the enemy at the north side is now double the size
it was a short time back, but there do not appear to be
many troops in the tents, and some people think that the
tents have been pitched as another ruse in order to deceive
us as to their strength.
On the 18th the writer adds :
It is currently reported to-day that an extensive change
in the disposition of our troops will be made very shortly,
and that a strong expeditionary corps d'armie will be des-
patehed against the enemy on the north side of the Tscher-
naya. The report is, that the light division, under Sir
George Brown, and the regiments under Sir Colin Camp-
bell, will take the field in conjunction with a French and
Sardinian corps ; that the fourth division, under Sir
John Campbell, will be moved down to defend Balaklava
and the works outside it, aided by the few Turks who re-
main and Vinois' Brigade, and that a French carps will
march up and occupy the camp of the fourth division be-
fore Sebastopol. The French are landing large masses of
men at Kamiesch every day. The greater part by far of the
Sardinian troops have already reached the Crimea ; and,
although our force has been diminished by the withdrawal
of the Turks to Eupatoria, there is no doubt expressed by
those competent to judge of such operations, that we
have an army sufficiently strong to maintain our lines be-
fore the town, and at the same time to meet any force the
Russians can bring against them in the field, if properly
handled, and led with the requisite boldness and
prudence.
The weather has been so hot for the last few days that
fears may be reasonably entertained of the results of
lengthened marches or extreme exertion in the sun ; in
the trenches the temperature is stifling and the atmo.
sphere unwholesome. Su far as lam aware, the men still
wear the same coats and trousers which they had in the
winter, nor has there been, to the best of my belief, any
issue of summer clothing. The excitement of a march
would, however, be very beneficial to the troops, provided
they were not overworked, and that they were saved from
the outbreak of the terrible maladies which devastated our
armies last summer. The possession of the Tachernaya
will soon become of consequence to us, were it only for
the want of water. I am credibly informed that the rain
which fell within the last week is of most unusual occur-
rence at this time of year, and that such a supply of water
is an exceptional circumstance which makes the heart of
all the Southern Crimes glad in time of peace, and fills
the farmers with joyful gratitude to Heaven. Henceforth,
till the month of July, we can expect no rain. There will
not be a drop of water from the sky to fill our wells and
watercourses for months to come, and the fears
I expressed several weeks ago with respect to a
scarcity more terrible in its effects to Mall and beast than
famine itself are becoming more and more reasonable as
the fierce hot sun day by day bakes the steppes and
ravines of the plateau on which we are encamped. The
consumption of water by an army of 180,000 men, and by
tens of thousands of camp followers, by myriads of cattle,
and by beasts of burden, may be readily conceived to be
very great, and to increase as the heat does, just in pro-
portion as the means of meeting it are diminished by the
same cause. Some feeble attempts have been made to