Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/374

 34 i THE CANNONADE uF CHAP XIII. works wave, — to prevent an enemy's ships from entering the roadstead ; to destroy them very speedily if they should ever succeed in doing so ; and, failing even that, to sink them in any endea- vour to approach or to penetrate the Man-of-war Harbour. So large a proportion of the defensive works had been designed for these purposes, that (not counting those two small works, the Wasp Tower and the Telegraph Battery, of which we shall hear by-and-by) three only of all the water-side forts were so placed as to be able to take part in an engagement with ships keeping clear of the en- trance. These three forts were Fort Constantiue, Fort Alexander, and the Quarantine Sea-fort. Forts Con- Fort Coustantinc on the north, and Fort Alex- Arexandc""'' Under on the south, of the entrance, were, both of them, works of prime importance, not only from their size, strength, and power, but also because it was evident, from the position of these two great fastnesses, that the capture or destruction of either would be an event that might govern the fate of Sebastopol. Like the rest of the great stone forts which defended the coast and harbour. Fort Constantine and the casemated portion of Fort Alexander were built of a very strong limestone called the ' stone ' of the steppes.' * The average height above the llussian sources) with the sea-forts of Sebastopol, and examin- ing Captain Drumniond's report, as well as the plan which ac- companies it— a plan prepared by Lieutenant Montagu O'Keilly —would be struck with the e.Kceeding accuracy of the survey which the Retribution effected.
 * Todleben, p. 93.