Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/91

 OF Tin: Ar,MA. 61 Fuv all the early necessities of the defence there cii a p. Avas a vast abundance of ammunition ; * and, it ^^^" being impossible for the Allies to invest the place, Ammuni- fresh supplies could be always pouretl in. "We may therefore evade that task of inquiring as to the quantity of ammunition in store which might be necessary ibr understanding the condition of a city which was really beleaguered, and the same reason dispenses with the necessity of any de- tailed statement with respect to the supply of food in Sebastopol ; but it may be worth while store of ^ • 1 o 1 1 1 n provisions. to say that, in the matter of bread, the fleet was provisioneil for seven months, and the army ibr four and a half. Between nine and ten o'clock on the morning; ruhseiit. of the 13th of September, men usnii: their glasses seentrom ^, . Scbastopol. at Sebastopol were able to see on the horizon two line-of-battle ships, and, behind them, a darkness of such a kind that it could hardly be anything else than the smoke; of a great fleet of steamers. About noon, the telegrajdi from Loukoul an- nounced that a tieet visible to the N.W. was drawn up in three columns, and was standing E.N.E. By intelligence sent from the neighbour- hood of Cape Tarkan, Prince ^lentschikoff also learnt that seventy vessels had there been seen, and it now a])peared sure that the Allies had troops on board, and had come with intent to land. squander their amniunitiou at the early fieiiod of the siege, is proof that at that time they couhl liavc had uo aippreheusion of the possibility of finding it run short. In Todlehcn there will be found minute and ample details on the subject.
 * The almost recklees way in which the I'ussians used to