The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-10 00:00:00

to 251bs. 6 entries.
Mr. Murray's Old Ireland, aged, 1301bs (Poole) 1
Vte. Artus Talon's Deceitful, aged, 1461bs
M. Fasquel's Trerobleur, 6 yrs, 1401bs
Count d'Alcantara'a Van Speyk, 5 yrs, 1451 b

MILITARY LIFE, AFLOAT, IN THE CAMP,
AND IN THE TRENCHES.

The following was written by a non-commissioned
officer now in the army in the Crimea :
uy

Camp before Sebastopol, March 10, 1555.
Dearest Brother,—l will now give you a full and par-
ticular account of my adventures. We started on
the 12th of January, a draft of upwards of 200, and
the good people of Cork gave us a good cheering to
hearten us on the way, handkerchiefs waving from every
available window on each of the river Liffey's sides till
we embarked on board her Majesty's screw-steamer
Princess Royal—a fine vessel to look at, but abominable
as a transport. I would like the good people of Eng-
land to know and thoroughly understand how the poor
soldier is treated when he sets out on a campaign. In
the first place, the ship was crowded scandalously, up-
wards of 1,000 of a crew, including marines, and about
the same number of soldiers of many different regiments,
crammed into messes of 30 men between two of the
cannons, where eight men only should be ; decks,
although so many troops aboard, continually wet,
causing great unpleasantness between soldier and sailor ;
and as to rations, I had to throw aside all squeamish-
ness, and rough it how I could. - I was sea sick for the
first four or five days, and after that I sunk completely
to a shadow, so much so that all said I must he left at
Scutari. Never shall I forget the pair and anguish of being
ill and jostled about as a thing only waiting its turn to be
thrown overboard. Such carelessness of sick persons is
a disgrace to the English navy. The doctor's medicine
chest was not found till we passed Constantinople, so
you may judge small was the quantity of medicine he
had to cure anybody. I will give him his due, he did
his best under such inconveniences, but God keep me
from hospitals in future. But that, is past. I gradually
improved in health until we landed; at least, sufficient
to withstand the fatigue we have had to undergo up to
the present time, though rath,r weary now—having
been in the trenches all day, which is no joke, from three
o'clock in the morning tin seven at night, out of that
working four hours with pickaxe and spade. To one
who is not used to it navvying is not an agreeable em-
ployment. lam galloping too fast. We bad a very fair
voyage up to Malta, though rather rough in the Bay of
Biscay ; but after we had passed that place we had a great
many sudden squalls, which made me think the vessel
could not possibly weather it through the Black Sea, for
three out of six boilers were useless. We got to Gibraltar
on the 19th, and stopped 12 hours only to take coals. I
was too ill to give more than a glimpse at it, but, as near
as I can describe it, it is a steep barren-looking rople;
with not a sign of a gun to be seen from our ship, and
here and there a house to be seen looking rather pretty
in the distance. We arrived at Malta on the 26th, and
stopped a couple of days. As soon as we entered the har-
bour and dropped anchor, hundreds of bum-boats came
alongside, and such a jabbering, you would have split
your sides laughing. They row very swift, standing up to
it, and every boat has an eye on each side of it painted
and striped with all manner of colours, looking very pic-
turesque, together with their peculiar Clress. It is a very
pretty little harbour, only the buildings have a very yel-
low appearance on account of the nature of the stone.
They are great cheats these Maltese, charging one man
six times the price they would another. Oranges and
figs are very;plsmiful, but on account of these Maltese
smuggling liquour aboard for the sailors, very little
ehance is there of getting down to buy anything. I must
tell you one thing that happened there. A mule was
brought aboard, and a mess of 30 men shifted for the
express purpose of finding it accommodation, and the
men told to go on deck tr anywhere to mess and to
sleep, when-they inquired the reason. Such a piece of
tom-foolery as parades with fire looks and belts amongst
a crew employed on deck, jostled first on one side and
then on the other, I never witnessed before in the
course of my short experience in soldiering. Well, that
is past. I may have to mention a few more extrava-
gances on the part of officers in her Majesty's service
before I have finished this letter. I will now pass
through the Straits of the Dardanelles up to Constanti-
nople ; and never was I more astonished at the beauty
of the place, surfiassing all views that ever these eyes
witnessed. Stretching for several miles, this vast city
appeared like a vision just opening through a warm
mist ; ininarsts and doilies were countless, and every
house painted a different shade of colour. During our
stay of three days I had an opportunity of seeing the
Sultan and his suite, in white and gold barges, gliding
across the harbour, together with the sound of Turkish
music. It was really a novelty to me. Every one of
the sailors got drunk while we stayed there—a small
brig being alongside, laden with coal, they had a fine
opportunity vf smuggling alcohol aboard. the plea-
sure-boats here are in the exact shape of a canoe—gliding
along with astonishing swiftness and little labour. -I
will now drive on through the Black Sea, but very
slowly, on account of the shortness of steam and the
weight of shot and shell in her bottom. Nothing very
particular occurred, except the usual rough sea, until we
anchored about 2 miles from Sebastopol ; there we first
saw the storm of shell and shot that we were s 6 soon to
be amongst. Our ship was toe large to enter the har-
bour of Balaklava, so we had to enter that good ship,
to wit, the Terrible--terrible indeed has it been to the
Russians for some time back, having made them smart
pretty well—it carries the heaviest metal of any ship in
our service, and has furnaces to make the shot red hot.
We entered the harbour—a very e riliar
trent,- to it, so.)uucii 5.,1, that the Russian vessels used
to glide into it unperceitied by the English and French
vessels in chase: -we were 2 days more before we
landeJ ; that eventful day was the Dth of February, a