Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/82

 52 SEBASTOPOL r.KFORK T1!K BATTLE CFIAP. their attacks was so foiined by nature as to offer , to the defenders of the phice an advantageous position for the erection of a fortified Work. Ou the other hand, the place was commanded hy higher ground — by liigher ground destined to be nnder the dominion of besiegers when estab- lished on the Chersonese. Then also the length of the semicircular line which had to be defend- ed throughout was as much as four miles ; and finally, it must be understood that of the several defensive })osts which might be most ailvan- tageously established along this extended line, there were three, at the least, so circumstanced that the loss of any one of them would be likely to carry with it the fall of the place.* There existed other sources of embarrassment which however — though not in an equal degree — were common to the attack and the defence. Besieged and besiegers alike were sure to be put to great stress by the depth of the ravines, which would more or less si)lit their strength by ham- pering all lateral movements; and, in the event of the conflict taking a form which should make it depend much on earthwoi'ks, both the garrison and their assailants would have to encounter the difficulty of trying to gain cover from ground Avhich was simply liard rock, coated over, where coated at all, with a very thin layer of clay. Ixedan, and the FlagstafT IJastion. Todleben even says that the loss of either the ' Central,' or of the ' Land Quarantine ' Bastion, called Ijv the Kussians ' Xumber Si.,' would also have been fatal.
 * The positions suLsequeiitly occupied b}' the MalakofT, tho