Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/282

 252 OKDERS AND PREPARATIONS CHAP, to them the arrival of the supplies which were • sent to them; but the means of land -transport were not yet within their reach. It was estimated that, in order to move effectively in the interior, the English army alone would require packhorses or mules to the number of 14,000. To obtain these was difficult, but not impossible; and at the time to M'hich wo point, about 5000 had been collected. By a continuance of these exertions in Bulgaria, and by due activity in forwarding munitions and stores from England, it is probable that the English force, after a further interval of about six weeks or two months, might have been prepared to move as an army carrying on regular operations ; but of course this would only be true upon the supposition that the army should always march through countries yielding sufficient forage. The preparations of the French were not, per- haps, quite so far advanced as our own ; but it is probable that the two armies would have been found ready at about the same time for an active campaign in Bidgaria. Their coin- The sliips of the Allied Powers were at hand, and their fleets had dominion over all the Euxine home to the Straits of Kcrtch. They had the command of the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles, the Mediterranean, of the whole ocean ; and of all the lesser seas, bays, gulfs, and straits, from the Gut of Gibraltar to within sight of St Petersburg. The Czar's Black Sea fleet existed, but existed in close durance, shut up under the guns of Sebastopol. mand of the Bea.