Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/139

 WAY OF MINISTERING TO THE ARMIES. 95 ' munication between thera.' It was — not the chap. camel alone, but with liirn also — the rich man [ bringing whole mountain-ranges of cargo that strove, and strove, and strove to pass through the eye of the needle. To facilitate the landing of cargoes, our Engi- Construc- neers. in spite of the difficulties occasioned by a wharves at ' ^ Balaclava. distressing scarcity of ' hands,' found means to construct some wharves — wharves slight at first and infirm, but reconstructed in November, and so far extended as to have a frontage of seventy- five feet. Still, from the insufficiency of the causes, neverthe- miniature harbour, from the narrowness of the less, ob- structing Balaclava ledge, and, finally, from the ever- thedisem- embarrassing want of ' hands,' it resulted that an accumulation of supplies lay for weeks and weeks on board vessels — vessels, some of them in har- bour already, others kept in the roadstead out- side for want of berth-room within. Another link in the chain was the one — eight Roadway between or nine miles long — which connected our troops camp and on the Chersonese with Balaclava, their port of supplv ; and the question whether a road well Question of ^^ «' ' ^ 'metalling hardened with stone ought not to have been made a road be- ° fore the ITtb for the purpose, is one demanding an answer. October. The first part of this answer applies to a period of three weeks determining on the l7th of October, and blends itself with the counsels which prepared the cannonade of that day. After liaving made good their ' flank march,' the Allies had safe rround for inferring that, at a sacrifice of men which Burgoyne himself did not estimate at more than about five hundred,
 * -' ° . tion of