" Lie unknown and unnoticed. — Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside them; Thousands of throbbing hearts, where theirs are at rest and for ever; Thousands of aching brains, where theirs no longer are busy; Thousands of toiling hands, where theirs have ceased from their labours; Thousands of weary feet, where theirs have completed their journey."
SEBASTOPOL FROM THE SEA.
SKETCHED FROM THE DECK OF H. M. S. SIDON.
AU our acquaintance with Sebastopol has hitherto been formed from various points in the Allied position on the South side, and the reader, who has accompanied us thus far in the series, must be tolerably conversant with the relative situations of the works of attack and defence, as well as with the general aspect of the town as seen from the plateau above it. We are here presented with a far different and more panoramic view. Takjng our stand on the deck of the Sidon, one of our ships of war engaged in the blockade of the port, we embrace at a glance the entrance to the harbour, the whole of the sea-ward defences, several of the forts on the North side, a considerable portion of the town, and of the heights immediately above it, and the lofty and magnificent chain of hills on the horizon, amongst which the Tchatir Dagh, or Tent Mountain, is conspicuous, from its size, its peculiar shape, an^ its isolated position.
The foreground derives interest and animation from the graceful grouping and easy natural attitudes of the sailors on the deck of the Sidon, where we are introduced to another accurate and elaborate " portrait" of one of those gigantic implements of destruction whieh have inaugurated a revolution in every branch of scientific warfare; the subject, in this instance, being a pivot-gun weighing 87 cwt., and which throws an 8-inch solid shot.
Mr. Simpson's enumeration of the several objects of importance in this drawing is at once so graphic and so lucid, that we should be guilty of presumption were we to attempt to substitute for it any^ description of our own. He says, —
" On the top of the red cliff" at the extreme left of the picture is the Wasp Battery; inwards from it is the North Fort; below these on the point of land is Fort Constantine; the long fort behind it is Fort Maximilian. On the South side is a very dark building, this is Fort St. Nicholas; to the right of this fort is a long line of guns forming the Quarantine Battery. At the entrance to the Quarantine Harbour, just above this, is the commencement of a long loop-holed waU, which extends to the very right of the picture; it ends at a now roofless building just behind the Flagstaff" Battery, which is indicated by the smoke of a gun. With the exception of some suburban patches of houses now in ruins, the city of Sebastopol is enclosed on this side by the wall, and the tops of the houses alone are visible over it. The dark-coloured dome which surmounts the Church is seen above the wall; to the right of it is a large building, which is said to be a military club-house; to the right of this again is a building with a green roof, said to be the Theatre; over this is indicated the position of the Malakoff, beneath which are a great number of earth-works; not far from these, close to the sea, are stiU existing remains of the ancient Chersonesus; they are immediately above the men hoisting flie flags. This drawing gives a correct idea of what are termed * the heights above Sebastopol.' They are the greyish-green ground between the long wall and the snow-covered mountains in the distance; the highest point of this ground being * Cossack' or ' Shell Hill,' exactly over the building with the green roof, the field of Inkermann being just in the hollow. To the right, between that and the next eminence on the southern side of it, precisely between the two lines to which the flags are attached, is the position of the camp of the Second Division. Over fort Saint Nicholas is the Inkermann West Light, from which the Russians can throw shells upon Cossack Hill; upon the higher ground behind is the Inkermann East Light. The foreground represents the deck of Her Majesty's ship Sidon, engaged in the blockade of the port of Sebastopol; the two flags being hoisted are part of a sentence, and express the word ' Russians,' the men being engaged in reporting to the Admiral of the Fleet the arrival of some of the enemy's troops and waggons."