Polynesian., 1857-05-23

Tor the contract from France and England, among
the former being the company known as the Credit
MObilier. The government finally concluded to
make the contract with Mr.. Gowen on the most
liberal terms, which cannot fail, we think, to be
amply remunerative. The value of the ships sunk
is said to be sixty-ve million dollars, and he has
a certain portion of the value of each ship raised
at the moment it is placed in the hands of the
Russian government
The expedition which sails from this country
will consist of two vessels, one Of which leaves
Philadelphia or about the lst of April, and the
second soon after. The number of persons engag-
ed to accompany it from this country is about one
hundred and fifty, the well-known ship-buider Of
this city, S. F. HolbrOok, Esq, being one of the
superintendents There will be, also, shipbuilders
cauikers, machinists, engineers, &c. Some Of the
hydraulic machinery for raising the vessels Is of
the most colossal description, one cylinder alone
Weighing $4,000 lbs. indeed it must be So for
some of the vessels raised are of 5000 tons bur-
then. The value of the material to be furnished
by the Russian government to be used in the rails
ing of this fleet, will be about million and half
of dollars, and the time occupied in performing
the contract WILL it is thought, be about eighteen
months or two years.
At Kertch there are also some five or six Rus
sian vessels sunk, which are included in the con-
tract, and in the harbOr of SebastOpOl there are
some $500, 900 worth of chains and anchors, which
inability to carry them off. In addition to the ex-
pedition from this country, the Russian govern
ment bind themselves to furnish them three thous
and to five thousand men, whose pay from Mr..
GOwen, usual In that country, will not be more
than twenty five cents per day, they 50 finding "
themselves. Take it altogether, it is the greatest
contract-submarine Otherwise-ever entered
into, and it will be with pride and pleasure that
the countrymen of Mr.. Gowen and his associates
+I, l.
Mr.. G., as is we'll known, is a seIf-made enter
prising Yankee who, though comparatively young
man, has travelled in nearly every country upon
the globe.
Mr.. Gowen, who was at Sebastopol in Novem-
Der last gives US interesting particulars from
that now famous city The Russian government
is engaged in rebuilding it, Before the siege it was
quite populous place, containing, it is supposed
about sixty thousand persons. When Mr.. Gowen
was there there were about six thousand people in
the place. Several thousand laborers were then
engaged upon the works, and the number was to
be largely increased. The old city was famous for
its narrow streets, ike Boston; the city will
be built in squares, like Philadelphia. 1t is also
said that there restrictions against the erection
of wooden buildings. The forts about the city.
according to the examinations Of Mr.. Gowen, are
only about half destroyed. Of the immensity of
the warlike material scattered with so much pro-
fuseness about this celebrated spot, some idea may
be formed from the fact that the Russians have al
ready gathered over sixteen thousand tons Of shot
and she'll, and yet they are so thickly scattered
around that it is impossible to tread without touch
ing them. There are, however, no dead bodies to
be seen, they having been all carefully buried.
There was one spot visited by Mr.. G. of melan-
eholy interest 1t was a deep ravine, formerly
crossed by bridge Into this ravine, the bodies
of two thousand Russians, French and English,
killed in one of the more fatal battles, had been
placed, and covered with earth. A wooden cross
above has brief inscription telling of the slaugh
tered thousands thus rudely entombed beneath.