The scarp was faced with a stockade, constructed of beams of wood fixed perpendicularly in the ground, and sharpened to a point at their upper extremities, which gave them a resemblance to a row of shark's teeth. The counter-scarp was perforated with caves for the protection of the soldiers, by whom the ditch seems to have been no less regularly garrisoned than the body of the bastion itself. Even outside the ditch, rows of planks had been placed upon the ground with large sharp nails projecting from their upper surface, which would have wounded and lacerated the feet of those who must have passed over them in making the assault. Such were the objects accumulated by a hellish ingenuity to render an entrance into the work impossible; but, even had these been surmounted and the entrance effected, so completely was the Bastion du Mat commanded by the Garden Battery, that the hapless stormers, in the very moment of their delusive success, must have found themselves face to face with the muzzles m THE CRIMEA.
of the guns of the latter, and, destitute of any species of shelter, must have been swept away almost to the last man.
The French therefore exercised a wise discretion in shifting the main point of their attack to the Malakoff, whose great height, while it prevented the possibility of its being commanded by any of the other batteries, rendered all those within the range of its guns untenable from the moment the assailants were firmly established there.
In the middle distance of this drawing are seen the embrasures of the Bastion Centrale, the next Russian battery on the proper right of the Bastion du Mat.
DOCKS AT SEBASTOPOL, WITH RUINS OF FORT
ST. PAUL.
These stupendous docks, one of the boldest and happiest efforts of engineering skill, were constructed at a vast expense during the reign of the Emperor Nicholas, by the late Colonel Upton, an Englishman, who, having been led from circumstances into which it is now bootless to inquire to quit his native country, entered the Russian service, in which his unquestionable talents speedily secured him a position of distinction.
Dr. Koch, whose account of these colossal works is by far the most clear and intelligible of any we have met with, thus describes them: —
" The Docks, which were completed a few years back, are equally magnificent. Until that period it was almost impossible to fit out ships of the line. This is now effected with great ease by means of the Docks, Avhich consist of three basins, one behind the other. Each basin is so spacious that two ships of the line can be received into it simultaneously. If a vessel has to undergo repairs, it is taken out of the harbour into the first basin, the water in which is on a level with that of the port, and the first basin is then closed towards the sea with water-tight gates. The ground of the other two basins is dry, as it is higher than the level of the haven. By means of a water-course, situated rather higher up, of which I shall have occasion to speak presently, so much water is let into the lowest basin as to bring it on the same level with the second, which is also filling. As the water rises, the vessel naturally follows its movements, and is soon above the surface of the harbour. It is now dragged into the second or middle basin, and a pair of gates again separates the lower basin from the central one. While the water in the lower basin is again allowed to flow
DOCKS AT SEBASTOPOL, AND RUINS OF FORT ST. PAUL, 113
back into the liarbour, the central one is filled with so much water by means of the watercourse that it is on a level with the uppermost one, which is able to receive the vessel. This is again shut in by gates, and the water is let off. In this way the ship is dry-docked, without receiving the slightest injury, and can be easily repaired. The height of the Docks, where the ships are repaired, is forty feet above the level of the harbour. The space is so large, that three line-of-battle ships, two frigates, and other smaller vessels, can be under the workmen's hands at once; for there are seven smaller graving docks, connected with the larger and first basin, which are filled directly from the watercourse. An idea of the expense of these works may be formed from the fact that the lock-gates, which were procured from England, alone cost the sum of two hundred and seventy thousand silver roubles."