Below the hillocks, and between them and the trenches, are the tents of the Turks, and the curious mud-huts or caves in which they burrowed during the winter, but which were destroyed in the spring by Omer Pasha's orders, when he assumed the command. On the right of the second hillock, and just above the railway, which with the road from Balaklava is seen winding through the vaUey towards the front, are the tents and huts of the 71st Highlanders. The huts in the foreground form the camp of the 93rd Highlanders, on the right of which are some more Turkish tents.
The square building on the extreme right is the Head-quarters of Sir Colin Campbell; who is seen standing in the foreground, in conversation with Major Gordon, the officer in the sheepskin coat. The other officers composing the Staff may be thus distinguished. Lieutenant-Colonel Stirling is leaning on the gun nearest to the spectator, with a telescope in his hand; standing against the second gun is Capt. Mansfield, A.D.C.; next to liim in a sitting posture. Major ShadweU, A.Q.M.G.; and on his left Capt. Maxwell.
The harbour and shipping at Balaklava, shut in by the hill on which are the Genoese forts, are visible in the distance.
,
THE RAILWAY AT BALAKLAVA.
The history of this extraordinary undertaking is well known. When first suggested it was regarded by many with suspicion and distrust, as a visionary and impracticable scheme, resulting from ignorance of the different exigencies of a country in a high state of civilization, and which for forty years had enjoyed profound peace, from those of an invaded and far-distant land, on which the assailants could only maintain a precarious footing by mere force of arms. The Russians, it was contended, would never permit such a work to be accomphshed; its progress would be interrupted and delayed by frequent attacks, while those engaged in its construction would be constantly harassed and annoyed, and in all probability many of them carried into captivity. The country, too, was not adapted for the construction of a railroad — the gradients would be too steep, the soil too treacherous; while the heavy rains, which were known to deluge the Crimea at that season of the year, would either prevent its being made at all, or render it entirely useless when made.
Such were the objections started by those who never believe in the possibiHty of success untU after its achievement, and who are then sure to wonder that any doubts could ever be entertained of results, which from the first were palpable to them. If, as is well known to have been the case, the expedition itself was judged in this unfair spirit, it can scarcely be matter of surprise that the projected railway should have been criticised in a similar strain. The then government, however, wisely closed its ears to these lugubrious croakings and sinister predictions; and, appreciating at a glance the immense importance of the advantages which would accrue both in the comfort of the army and the more vigorous prosecution of the siege from so vast an increase in the means of transport, it closed gladly and at once with the proposals of Messrs. Peto, Betts, and Brassey. These gentlemen, who were already widely known from the gigantic scale on which they had contracted for works of a similar nature in various parts of the world, offered to construct a double line of rails from Balaklava to headquarters, and to such other points in the front as might the most facilitate the operations of the Commissariat. In the most liberal and patriotic
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spirit, they declined to derive any pecuniary benefit from the transaction, demanding only to be reimbursed the expenses they should actually incur. They were to engage the whole of the staff, including a large body of the herculean labourers technically known as " Navvies," for whom they established a separate Commissariat, totally independent of the Government; and were to convey to Balaklava in ships freighted by themselves aU the necessary materiel, including rails, sleepers, stationary engines, &c. &c.