Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/385

 THE 17TII OF OCTOBKK. 355 six feet thick, and vaulted roofing from six to chap twelve feet thick. The work had the form of a •^"^' horse-h;lioe, so placed upon a narrow spit of land that its right face was towards the sea, whilst its left looked up to the east, along the Sebastopol roadstead ; and the rounded part of the Avork, which joined the right face to the left, defended the entrance of the roadstead and its approaches. The fort contained two storeys of casemates, and had besides, on its summit, a tier of open-air batteries. At its gorge, the work was closed by a strong cazern with a crenelled wall for muskets, and casemates on the storey above for 11 guns. Altogether, the ibrt mounted 97 onus, of which more than GO were in casemates, and 27 in the opeii-air batteries at the top of the fort. Of these 97 guns there were 43, according to General de Todleben, that could be brought to bear upon some portion or other of the Allied fleet — that is to say, 23 (at a very long range) uj^on the French fleet, 18 upon the main division of the English thewe.ik ^ _ '^ angle of fleet, and 2 only in the direction of a vessel the fort, approaching from the north along the five-fathom edge of the shoal.* But nature had done a good deal to defend xbesiioai lort Constantme from the guns ot an enemy s Fortcon- stantine : sliipping, for the spit on which the work stood was prolonged towards the sea by a shoal of such air batteries at the top of the fort. It must be stated, however, that the actual experience of our in-shore squadron does not jierfectly accord with Todleben's impressions. For the exact armament of Fort Constantine, see Appendix.
 * According to ToJleLen, those two gims were in the open-