On the contrar}', it seems as if carts from the interior came down from Simpheropol, and deposited stores at this locality, which must be somewhere in the nciQ-hbourhood of Kamischli. The carts from the north side, which are now apparently occupied in carrying awajiprovisions, keep along the road past the citadel and along the top of the ridge near the sea, and when they descend that ridge they are lost to sight, and do not reappear. If they were going to the new depot they would keep far more to our right, and take the road which is nearly parallel to the northern side of the roadstead of Sehastopol. These carts arc to he seen not only at the great storehouse between Fort Catherme and Hollandia, hut at the citadel and at Fort Constantine, and it would seem as if they came empty and went away heavily laden.
Their number is endless. They are not creaking lumbering arabas drawn by oxen, but light well-appointed military carriages, driven by soldiers, and excellentlj^ horsed, as is rendered quite apparent by the speed with which they travel when a rocket or a bomb from the south side is sent after them. The large magazine which the enemy seems most solicitous to empty, consists of a very spacious pile, of buildings of dark grey stone, with small windows, and is not unlike a prison or penitentiar}'. The sides form a square, but we cannot ascertain what the yard in the centre contains. There is a quay before it, along which horses, carts, and men rush at full speed whenever the French take it into their heads to amaoy them.
One gateway opens on the quay, and there is another on each of the i-emaining sides of the quadrangle, ^\■ith the exception of that on the north. The buildings are two stories high, and are roofed Avith tiles, Avhich are already beginning to look much tattered under the attentions of the French shells. Some distance behind the storehouse are prodigious quantities of coal, piled to the height of a man or thereabouts, and intersected with walks, or passages, through which we can see the soldiers going to and fro. The coals are arranged sj-mmotrically in squares, and at one corner there is either a large weighing machine or a small crane. As yet the Eussians have not touched these coals. Fm'ther away to the left the enemy have a small arsenal or store containing cannon and shot, with possibly in addition several thousand guns.
Besides the main stream of carts there are always many divergent currents and small strings oi vehicles proceeding between various stations on the north side and IMacIvenzie's Farm. Thej'' travel along ditferent paths through the brushwood, all of which communicate with the detached camps spread over the face of the slopes between Inkermann and the Belbek. The Russian Donnybrook Fair has disappeared; it liad been i^radually ineltiiig away since the- 8th and 9th of this month, and now all that is left of it is a few tents and dismantled huts. On the hill-side near the citadel they had estahlislied a sutlers' camp, like our own at Kadikoi, hut much more extensive, and this fair used to swarm with soldiers, officers, pedestrians, and cavaliers, — carts and arabas, and women and drochskies, from dawn till evening.
The police of the place seemed to be excellent, and, as it was out of the range of our shot and of anything but of some wonderfully erratic rockets, the scene was gay enough. Possibly the burntout shopkeepers of Scbastopol resorted to this spot and sought to estahlisli a small commerce there. They certainly had custom enougli; if the payment was equally liberal and sure, they could not complain much. Now our shells can almost reach this spot, and our rockets from below the Malakhofi" (command the fair from end to end, and so the Muscovs have abandoned it, that is to say, aU excepting some hardy sutlers and a few cantiniers have retired to some spot better suited to the tranquil pursuits of commerce.
The French have established mortars at the western angle of Fort Nicholas, whence they throw bombs at the magazines and at the working parties and convoys. Our indefatigable allies have also placed a rocket battery on the Karabelnaia, on the slope of the Malakhoff, and these alarming but uncertain missiles fly far over the magazines and burst near the roads among the trains of carts, and kick up a dust in the graveyards. They have also constructed a mortar battery behind the aqueduct in the ravine at the back of the Malakhoff. The rumours of a move are dying gi'adually away, and the army has made up its mind to remain quietly in winter quarters. The preposterous on (Lit is that the Generals have sent home for instructions.