The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-15 00:00:00

THE BRITISH ARMY.

RETURN OF THE KINBOURN EXPEDI-
TIONARY FORCE.
(From the Times Special Correspondent.)

Nov. 3.
For the last four days it has been blowing a
sirocco, which painfully affects one just returned
from nearly a month's trip at sea. The air is hot,
heavy, and impregnated with most offensive and
irritating dust, which attacks nearly every sense at
once. The thermometer has ranged from 75 deg.
to 80 deg. from Wednesday up to this date. Late
on Wednesday evening the Triton, Odin, and Fire-
brand, the latter two with mortar and gun-boats in
tow, arrived, after rather a rough passage, at
Kazatch. The Triton went round to Balaklava
next morning, and in the course of Thursday a
number of ?ranch and English vessels, with troops
and stores on board, arrived, one after the other,
and anchored off Kamiesh and Kazatch. It blew
so hard that it was considered inexpedient to land
the troops. Yesterday the whole of the fleets ar-
rived at their anchorage, but the wind still blew
strongly on shore, and no disembarkation took
place that I am aware of, nor has the brigade
under Brigadier-General Spencer rejoined the
Fourth Divcsion up to the time at which I am now
writing. The weather was too rough to permit
composition at sea, and I am consequently able to
send you only a very brief summary of our pro-
ceedings since the despatch of my last letter.
No regular mail left the fleet last Tuesday, and
the Admiral's letters were sent late in the day
by a French man-of-war, which would probably
fail to reach Constantinople in time for last Thurs-

day's mail.
Kinbourn is quite secured against any forces the
enemy can bring against it, covered completely as
it is by the guns of the formidable flotilla we have
left behind to protect it. The garrison is strong ;
it is well to keep the exact force secret, but the
Russians must know as well as we can how many
men the fort will contain with convenience:
French troops will occupy the fort, but a smal.
body of English will be left to guard the
flag which waves along with the tricolour from
its ramparts, and the task of its defence will be
shared by a powerful English squadron with our
allies. They have worked with extraordinary,
energy to repair the place. All the curtains are re-
built, the ruins cleared away, the damaged guns
removed, and fine ships' guns pu,t in their place ;
the fosse cleared out and deepened, the palisades
repaired, the south-eastern gateway filled up, and
its approaches covered by a strong ravelin ; the
crest of the parapets repaired solidly and well with
fascines and earthwork, the Russian guns rendered
efficient, the casemates cleared out and filled with
stores oradapted as barracks, and the interior build-
ings in course of reconstruction and renovation.
The batteries on the Spit are to be destroyed, and
that process is easily effected by removing the mas-
sive beams which support tke sand and few gabions
used in their construction. The reconnaissance
which started the week before last did very little,
except burn all the stores and houses which could
render service to the enemy for seven or eight miles
towards Kherson, and therefore I the less regret
being in the mouth of the Boug at the time it
started, and being unable to accompany it. The
total strength of the expedition was 4,541 men
and 279 horses.. On the first day they only
marched to a village two muffles beyond the place of
disembarkation on the Spit, the French being in
another village a mile in advance. On the second
day the men remained inactive. On the third day
the force marched to another village three miles
further down the Spit, which was completely
deserted, except by an cad man and his wife,
and by a peasant, who VMS found up a chimney.
Two of the Cossack doicanders came in and surren-
dered themselves to the troops. On the fourth day
the force returned, having still another day's sup-
plies, and having laid waste the country and cap-
tured and slain immense quantities of poultry,
geese, pigs, (cm. The French were about 2,200
strong. One drummer was shot in the leg by an
unskilful pig-shooter, and bullets were flying in all
directionsin search of geese, pigs, or cocks and hens,
whenever the force came to a halt. None of the
enemy molested them, but a body of 200 horse
watched them closely, retreating before them as
they advanced, and following them up on their re-
turn, not without some shots from a French gun-
boat, which accompanied the expedition as closely
as possible, but was still a long way from the
shore. The rafts are all safe off Kinbourn, and
they are no insignificant prize just at this
moment, when such efforts are being made to put
the Boug in a state of defence.
The dockyards of Nicolaieff are supplied with
timber and wood from the government of Lig- .