Gradually the storm of war dies away, the roar of the artillery is heard at longer intervals, the flashes intermit, the dark paU of smoke rolls slowly off to sea, and night resumes its long usurped attributes of silence and serenity.
VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH.
CAVES IN THE WOKONZOFF EOAD, BEHIND THE TWENTY-ONE GUN BATTEEY.
The so-called VaUey of the Shadow of Death is a ravine lying in rear of our batteries, and into which the shot and shell from the Russian works, directed at our batteries at too long a range, roU down. So vast has been the accumulation of these missiles, that an accurate description of it would appear to exceed the limits of credibility. This drawing was executed before the period of the second bombardment, and the number subsequent to that event was of course far greater. When the writer visited the GreenhiU Battery in April, the whole extent of the road from side to side, for a very considerable distance, was literally paved with round-shot of all caHbres, and with large and small fragments of shell, so that a horse had the greatest difficulty in picking his way through the labyrinth of obstacles thus presented.
Before witnessing the scene, he had mentally accused those who had described it to him of unconscious exaggeration; after being ocularly convinced of their accuracy, he felt strongly the hopelessness of attempting to realise it to others. What it has now become, after several sue-
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RUSSIAN RIFLE-PIT. " 107
■ cessive bombardments, he is forced to confess himself incapable of conceiving.
The ^aves in this ravine were occupied by the reserve guard of the trenches; those in the next ravine to it, which were still more spacious, were used as powder-magazines, and rendered perfectly bomb-proof by a screen of sand-bags.
The position of the battery is shown in this picture by the puffs of smoke on the horizon. On the left is seen a portion of the trench leading into the battery. The foreground is occupied by a group of men carrying away a wounded comrade on a stretcher; behind them, on the hiU-side, are some others employed in a similar sad office. On the road is an artillery waggon carrying up ammunition for the battery.
RUSSIAN RIFLE-PIT,
NOW RITISH ADVANCED TEENCHES, F THE EIGHT ATTACK, OE GOEDON'S BATTEEY.
This is one of the pits which was taken on the night of the 19th April, when Colonel Egerton was kiUed; it is in the hollow between Gordon's Battery and the Redan, quite close to the Woronzoff Road. In the foreground of the drawing a group of men is seen busily engaged in filling sand-bags for the purpose of converting the pit into a trench, and connecting it with the rest of our works. In this service they are protected by a sharp fire from our rifles, directed through loop-holes menages in the parapet with sand-bags. The Russians are not ignorant of what is going on, and several round-shot lying on the ground, one of which has knocked over a gabion, and a shell bursting close to the right extremity of the work, prove how anxious they are to impede the operation. The capture of this rifle-pit is thus described by Mr. Russell: —
" Last night a very gallant and brilliant little feat of arms, attended, I regret to say, by severe loss, was performed by the 77th Regiment in front of our right attack. There is nothing more remarkable in the active operations of this siege than the importance of the part played by the sharpshooters placed in those rifle-pits, which have been dug by the enemy, and which were constructed with great skill and daring, and have been defended with vigour and resolution. The pits now constructed are com-