On Thursday, just as the steam gun-boats Were actually under way, the wind began to rise, and the weather looked so threatening, that the Admirals ainiuUed by signal the orders for weighing. The fleet rode at single anchor through a stiff breeze, and at night the wind went down. Friday was a beautiful day, and again the fleet received orders to move, being preceded by the gun-boats, at one o'clock p.m., but the wind rose, and the sky darkened, just as the latter were weighing, and our departure was again postponed. As I write, 12'30, this day (Saturday), the wind being light ftom S.S.W., the barometer at 29"41, and the sky blue and cloudy, with an appearance of fog to leeward, the signal has just ieen made " Departure postponed for more settled weather." In order to secure success to the expedition it is necessary to have clear calm weather, and the least failure would give great encouragement to the enemy, and cause us to lose possession of a place of immense importance; for there can be no doubt that if the attention of the enemy were drawn to the locality by an unsuccessful attack, they would turn aU their thoughts to it, and the position could be made of immense strength by sand and earth batteries, and would be fed by all the resources of Russia Irom Nicholaieff and Clierson.
The danfjer of these necessary delays is, that the enemy may discover our design, and suspeot that Odessa is not the object of attack. lie may observe that we do not avail ourselves of the favourable weather for operating against that city, for we could scarcely hope to have more auspicious winds than we now enjoy, were the fleet ordered to go in. It may also arouse his suspicions that we abstain from any movement, while the coixst to tlie north and east is a lee shore. The hovering of our light vessels oft" Cherson Bay may also have given him some idea of the character of the expedition. The garrison of ()dessa, augmented by some columns which we have seen, and by others which possibly came in without being observed, is busily engaged in throwing up earthen batteries, and in strengthening the defences of the fortress on the southeastern angle of the town.
As for as can be ascertained, the fortifications are not of overwhelming strength; but the enemy have erected some excellent casemated works,ncarly ajie}>r cVeau, and several very wicked-looking stone forts. These could, no doubt, all be battered about theii* eyes and ears, but the troops would keep beyond the line of fire, and we could not land with a small force in a large city defended by a numerous garrison; so the only results of an attack would be the destruction of private propert}', the lives and limbs of people who must curse this war every day of their lives, and the infliction of injury on one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. I trust that it will be my fate to record a glorious termination to this year's campaign, and the revival of our old naval spirit and of our naval success.
The reduction and occupation of Kinburn would be no mean or insignificant advantage, and, imdertaken as it is by officers like Sir Edmund Lyons, Admii-als Stewart and Bruat, and executed by this magnificent fleet, I can only believe in one result — that we shall take the place whenever we try to do so. The expedition has never been intended to operate against Odessa, but is to occupy the forts at the mouth of the Dnieper, ■with a view to carry out plans against the enemy which It is not now necessary to indicate more precisely. These forts are Oczakoff" on the north, and Kinburn on the south side of the entrance. The former is built upon a small promontory, called Oczakoif Point; the other is situate on a long narrow spit of sand, which may be considered as the north-western termination of the extraordinary spit of Djarilgatch.
The distance between OczakofT and Kinburn, across the entrance to Cherson or Dnieper Bay, does not exceed one and a quarter mile, and the passage up the Dnieper to Nikolaev winds close to Kinbum, and is not more than three-quai-ters of a mile from the forts. The fleet is now anchored not less than thirty miles from these forts, but a very extensive and dangerous sandbank, twenty miles long and of varying breadth, lies between us and the entrance to the Bug and Dnieper. This bank commences at the distance of about ten miles outside Odessa, and thence runs across nearly to Kinburn. The water on this bank does not exceed three fathoms, and in some places is even less, but up to the distance of three-quarters of a mile from the shore all round from Odessa to Oczakoff, the water is much deeper, and this belt of deep water is about three miles broad along its whole com-se between the shore and the great sandbank, formed by the continuous deposits of the two rivers.