were engaged in a conspiracy to set fire to our shipping and stores. Dr. Koch continues: " The romantic acclivities, which are formed of a greyish -blue or light -red Jura rock, have their beauty augmented by the numerous ruins visible upon them. Here, certainly, stood the old castle by which the entrance to the straits was commanded. Traces are still found of an immense outer wall, and there are two towers in a respectable state of preservation, one of which is built right above the narrow entrance. A harbour more protected against storms and sudden attack it would be difficult to find."
Curiously enough he adds, " It is, however, too small ever to acquire any importance."
Dr. Koch views with extreme indulgence a theory of Dubois de Montpereux, that this was the spot described by Homer in the tenth book of the Odyssey, in a passage thus translated by Pope: —
" Within a long recess a bay there lies,
Edged round with cliffs, high pointing to the skies;
The jutting shores, that swell on either side.
Contract its mouth and break the rushing tide.
Our eager sailors seize the fair retreat.
And bound within the port their crowded fleet;
For here, retired, the sinking billows sleep,
And smiling calmness silvered o'er the deep.
I only in the bay refused to moor.
And fixed, without, my hawsers to the shore."
Whatever may be the merits of this question, into which we shall not follow the disputants, the poetic description applies so justly and accurately to the peculiar characteristics of the land-locked harbour of Balaklava, and illustrates so happily the point of view selected by Mr. Simpson, that we shall not apologise for its introduction in this place; and shall only add to it by a brief notice of the most striking features of the drawing. A couple of tents, part of the encampment, form the foreground, and in front of these some English soldiers are cooking their rations, while a hungry Tartar in the costume of the country looks on, and receives instruction, at once ocular and olfactory, in the mysteries of the Western cuisine. The town is exliibited as it appeared on our first arrival, with the exception that some of the houses present a somewhat dilapidated aspect, having been destroyed by the troops in order to obtain fuel. Amongst the buildings, two of the most conspicuous are a new church still unfinished, and a large square house.
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converted from its primitive destination into an ordnance office. The bay is already crowded with vessels, which, however, are few in comparison to those with which it was subsequently choked. Immediately in front of the Ordnance Wharf is a large transport vessel, alongside of which Lord Cardigan's yacht is resting gracefully and airily on the untroubled surface of the water, while towering high above the rest are seen the huge masts of Her Majesty's ship Agamemnon, moored so as to protect and command the head of the harbour and the valley. In the background the abrupt cliffs which form the sides of the basin, the one on the left crowned with the Genoese forts, meet and overlap each other, so as to form a complete natural screen to the entrance; but still permitting a glimpse of the calm Euxine beyond, with two or three sails studding its surface in the far distance. The trees still flourishing in several parts of the town indicate the early period at which the view was taken, — prior, in fact, to both the epochs which have marked the existence of Balaklava since its occupation, — the first a time of dirt, and misery, and mud, — of sickness and "confusion worse confounded;" the second, one of order and regularity, cleanliness and system; with storehouses numbered, and streets no longer nameless; and a railway, winding thi-ough the whole length of the principal thoroughfare, in its progress to Sebastopol.