The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-01 00:00:00

BUILDING OF PONTOON BOATS BY

RUSSIA.

The following letter has been addressed to the editor
of the Times :

Sir,—The last letter of your correspondent from the
camp on the Tchernaya speaks of a puzzling piece of
intelligence having been communicated by a Cossack
deserter to the PiedmonteEe. The enemy, it seems, are
" building large boats and covering them with skins."
Your correspondent proposes the simple explanation that
these large boats are intended for pontoons, and that the
Russians are employed in repairing the losses they have
sustained in this particular article during- the summer
campaign.

If the words in which the report is given are actually
those of the deserter, I doubt this solution of the riddle.
Pontoons must be far too familiar to every Cossack to
allow of his describing them in a periphrastic manner.
Floating bridges are the common—l believe I might say
the only—kind used in Southern Russia ; and probably
not one Cossack in a thousand has ever seen any other
sort. I should rather conjecture that the boats in ques-
tion were only a species of coracle, constructed of such
materials as alone are available by Prince Gortachakoff
—viz., their frames of the wood growing on the Mac-
kenzie heighte, their covering of the skins of those
myriads of animals which have been killed for food, or
have perished fr m exhaustion in his camp.
Supposing these boats really to be coracles, what ob-
ject are they intended to subserve ? The most obvious
thought, of course, is (especially if coupled with the an-
ticipation of an attack upon the allies), that they are to
be employed, when a fitting occasion arises in transport-
ing troops across the harbour. On the feasibility of this
operation it would be idle for any one not on the spot to
sty a word. But there is another service to which cora-
cles might, perhaps, be made subservient, on which I
will, with your permission, offer a few observations.
In the account of the gallant feat recently performed
by Commander Commerell, at the mouth of the Salghir
river, I, for one, was much struck by a circumstance he
mentions, that he found a towing-path on each bank,
and water enough to float boats of small draught. Now,
as no towing-path would ever be made, except for the
purpose of facilitating water communication between
two points which for some reason or other it was de-
sirable to connect, common sense tells us that we must
look to the other side of the Sivash for one of these, and
somewhere up the Salghir for the other.
For the deterinieation of the former, we have only the
choice between Genitchi and Arabat, of which I should
have no hesitation in fixing on the first for several rea-
sons, of which I shall only mention the one—that the
Sivash, in the immediate neighbourhood of Arabat, is so
completely of the nature of a reedy swamp as to make •
it doubtful whether even a Lincolnshire duckboat could
float there. But at Genitchi it has been ascertained that
there is quite sufficient water to float barges; in fact, our
flotilla saw several there, and were only prevented from
destroying them by the inability to enter the Strait, ex-
cept with boats, which would have been destroyed by the
enemy's batteries on the cliff. I infer, therefore, that a
transit of stores, and possibly of men and materiel, has
already taken place from Genitchi to some point of the
Salghir along the southern portion of the Sivash ; and I
apprehend that these coracles are intended again to per-
form the same service. If there exists a channel of only
a couple of feet of water there is no doubt that a vast
deal of transport may be effected even by such a rude
expedient as the Cossack deserter described. And, let'
it be observed, the time at which this water communi-
cation would be most feasible is exactly that at which it
would be most valuable—l mean, after the autumnal
rains have fallen, which will reduce the north of the
Crimea to a slough, and before the frost of winter has
prevailed to such an extent as to freeze the Swash and
the edges of the Sea of Azoff, and (probably) permit con-
siderable traffic to go on by means of sledges on the ice.
How high up the Salghir the towing-path observed by
Commander Commerell extends must be a mere matter of
guess work. I should not, however, bo surprised to find
that it ascended the river as high as the point where the
easternmost road from Karasu-Bazar to the north
crosses it. Just there the Russian map places a
cluster of three villages, containing in the aggregate 81
hornesteals—an unusual thickness of population in the
plain of the Crimea, and suggesting the existence of some
particular reason for it, such, for instance, as the meet-
ing of land and water transport at the point in question.
It is possible that the waterway may extend still higher
—as far as Kiyat on the Western road from Karasu-
Bazar, or even Ispet on that from Simpheropol.
I am quite aware that the Salghir, a'though the
largest of the Crimean rivers, is described as a very
shallow stream in parts, except after rains. But the
towing-path observed by Captain Commerell proves that
some portion of it is actually used as a canal, and I be-
lieve that the various accounts of its shallowness all rest
ultimately on the statement of Pallas, who spoke of it,
as far as his personal knowledge went, from its appear-
ance at Simpheropol and the higher parts of its course
Who knows what may have been done of late years by
Russia, towards rendering it more available for transport,
at any rate during the autumn and spring ? Who would
have believed in the existence of a towing-path, if it had
not been seen ? Yet there it is, and the only question
to be answered is, how far does it extend ?
It is scarcely necessary for me to point out the
utility of the Salghir to the enemy, if it has been
really made to serve as a canal. It would furnish
the power either of evacuating the Crimea, or of in-
troducing stores during those months in which a march
across the northern steppe would be altogether impos-
sible. It would dispense with the necessity for either
carrying water, or moving troops in small bodies, in
order not to exhaust the wells. It would render pos-
sible the transport of heavy objects without any great
command of draught animals. And it is obvious that
each of these points must at the present moment be of
the deepest interest to the Russian commander, whether
he intends to go or to stay.—l am, sir, your obedient
servant, A HERTFORDSHIRE INCUMBENT.
Nov. 30.

The agents of the Danish Government have adver-
tised the particulars of the bonds of the 5 per cent. loan
drawn and cancelled in conformity with the terms of the
contracts,