Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/76

 4G SEBASTOPOL BEFORE THE BATTLE CHAT. ]if)uses, some barriicks on a lar<fo, scale, and a III • ' cliurch. Tlic separation of the town from its faubourg was rendered the more complete by the steepness and depth of the ravine which descended into the heart of the IMan-of-war Harbour, for if a man, being in the town of Sebastopol, desired to go into the faubourg without passing over the water, he "would not only have to go down, and go round by the Peressip at the head of the ]^^an- of-war Harbour, but would be forced to ascend the eastern side of the ravine by a steep and difficult road. The configuration of land and water which thus split off the faubourg from the main town was a great source of embarrassment to the defenders, and was not the only obstacle in the way of their lateral communications, for there was another ravine wln'ch subdivided the town, and another again which cut the suburb in two.* These ravines, as well as the ridges and knolls on which the place stood, sloped down with moi-e or less abruptness to the water's edge. The long hill on which stood the main part of the town is 200 feet above the level of the sea, and it descends with some abruptness towards the jMan-of-Aar within Sebastopol, having seen it only — as one could at the time of the war — from the heii^hts in front of our camp; but in 1869 I visited the place, and had the great honour of going over the ground with its illustrious defender. General de Todlebcn. I then found that — to an extent beyond all that maps, plans, and descriptions had enabled me to imagine — the fortress was split into fractions by the interposing ravines — into fractions which, however near as the crow flics, were still effect- ually sundered. — Note to Zd Edit ion.
 * When I wrote and published the above I had never been