Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/29

 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. 3 falls most abiuptly : for when a man turns his CHAP. back to the sea, and rides np along the river's '. bank, the summits of the hills on his right recede from liim more and more — recede so far that, although they are higher than the hills near the shore, they are connected with the banks of the stream by slopes more gently inclining. The main features of the ground arc these : first and nearest to the sea- shore there is what jnay be called the 'West Cliff — for the ground there rises to a height of some 350 feet, and not only presents, looking west, a bluff buttress of rock to the sea, but on its northern front also rises up so abruptly that a man going eastward along the bank of the stream has at first an almost sheer precipice on his right hand ; and it is only when he all but reaches the village of Almatamack that he finds the cliff losing its steepness. At that point, the ground becomes so much less precipitous, and is besides so broken, as to be no longer difiicult of ascent for a man on foot, nor even impracticable for country waggons. In rear — Russian rear — of the cliff there are the villages of Hadji-Boulat, Ulukul Tiouets, and Ulukul Aides. Higher up the river, but joined on to the West Cliff, there is a height, which was crowned at the time of the war by an unfinished turret intended for a telegraph. This is the Telegraph Height. At their top, the West Cliff and the Telegraph Height form one connected plateau or table-land ; but the sides of the Telegraph Height have not