A battery, called the " Crow's Kest," from its elevated position, is placed near this line, and commands to a cei'tain extent the right of the French lei't attack, and our sailors' batteries in the left of our left attack, and to all of these it is rather troublesome. It contains a couple of large mortars in addition to some long-range guns, and can bear on any troops between the outer defences and the foot of the hill on which the town rises, and the ravine between our left and the Frtmch left attack. A series of very strong earthworks crowns the ridge of the same hill, and the defences broken by the creek are continued towards the right by the various batteries (Bairack, Road, Garden, lilack, &c.), which are connected with the Great Eedan, and thence are carried to the Malakholf and its outlying works.
The suburb behind these defences next the creek, and in front of our left attack, is in complete ruins, but our line of batteries is almost too far to do injury to the public buildings behind the suburb. Our old first parallel has indeed been dis* armed on account of the distance, and the guns have been moved from it into the second parallel, and various batteries in front of it. The line of the first parallel and the hill on which it is placed conceal from the spectator atCatlicart's-hill the cemetery wliich we have occupied since the ISth of June, and which is improperly marked as " The Ovens" in one of the best maps of the place. They also hide the course of the Woronzofi'-road and the ravine in iront under the proper right of the Redan.
That portion of the ravine between our right and lelt attack, which is not closed up by the sweep of the hills on wliich the attacking batteries are placed, or by the ragged height seamed with rifle-pits, craters of bombs, zigzags, and the works of our Quarries Battery, is still visible. Behind the Redan may be observed the long line of the dockyard and arsenal buildings, and the barracks, which have been rendered uninhabitable on the near side by our fire — the gi-eat shears, the floating bridge across the roads to the north side, the two lines of men-of-war — the " Twelve Apostles" and five two-deckers, frigates, and steamers. Then, on our right of the Redan lie the Malakhoff, Mamelon, and the White Works, and Mount Sapouue peering over them, and thou the north side — the citadel, the Russian camp, Inkermann, its batteries, and the plateau of tlie Belbek forming the background, which is defined still further by a strip of blue sea.
From Cathcart's-hill, therefore, on the right front of the Fourth Division camp, one can gain an admirable view of certain l^oints of the position from the sea on the left to our extreme right at Inkermann. That advantage is, however, rarely obtainable when there is any heavy firing, as the smoke generally hangs in thick clouds between the earthworks, not to be easily dispelled, excepting by the aid of a brisk wind. If one of the few persons who were in the secret of the opening of the French batteries had been on Cathcart's-hill on the morning of the 5th he would have beheld then, just before half-past five o'clock, the whole of this scene marked out in keen detail in the clear morning air.
The men in our trenches can be seen sitting down behind the traverses, or strolling about in the rear of the parapets. Small trains of animals and files of men may be continually observed passing over the ground between the trenches and tlie camp, and the only smoke that catches the eye rises from the kettles of the soldiery, or from the di.«charge of a riilc in the advanced works. On the left, however, it is seen that the French trenches are crowded witjj men, and that their batteries ai'e all manned, though the occupants keep well out of sight of the enemy, and the mantlets and screens are yet down before the muzzles of some of their guns. The men beneath the parapets swarm like bees.
A few grey-coated Russians may be noticed repairing the Avorks of the Flagstaff Battery, or engaged in throwing up a new work, which promises to be of considerable strength, in front of the second line of their defences. Suddenly, close to the Ba.stion du Mat, along the earthen curtain between Nos. 7 and 8 Bastions three jets of flame spring up into the air and hurl up as many pillars of earth and dust, a hundred feet high, which are warmed into ruddy hues by the horizontal rays of the sun. The French have exploded three fougasses to blow in the counterscarp, and to serve as a signal to their men. In a moment, from the sea to the Dockyard-creek, a stream of fii-e three miles in length seems to run like a train from battery to battery, and fleecy, curling, rich white smoke ascends, as though the earth had suddenly been rent in the throes of an earthquake, and was vomiting forth the material of her volcanoes.