On the second day x2 308 THE BUG ANT5 THE DNIEPER. the men remained inactive. On the third day the force maixhed to another viUage three miles further down the Spit, which was completely deserted, except by an old man, his wife, and a peasant who was found up a chimney. Two of the Cossack duiianicrs came in and surrendered to the troops. On the fourth day the force returned, and having laid waste the country, and captured and slain immense quantities of poultry," geese, pigs, &c., supplies for another day remained unconsumed. The Trench were about 2200 strong. One drummer was shot in the leg by an unskilful pig-shooter, and bullets were flying in all dii-ections in search of geese, pigs, or cocks and hens, whenever the force came to a halt.
None of the enemy molested them, but a body of 200 horse watched them closely, retreating before them as they advanced, and following them up on their retm-n. They were saluted with some shots from a French gun-boat, which iujcompanied the expedition as closely as possible, but still kept a long way from the shore. The rafts are all safe off Kinburn, and they are no insignificant prize just at this moment, when such efforts are being made to put the Bug in a state of defence. The dockyai'ds of Nicholaieff are supplied with timber and wood from the Government of Ligtewski, which contains several large forests of fine trees. These are situate chiefly in the neighbourhood of Minsk, Mohilev, and Vitebsk. The wood is floated down the Dnieper to Cherson in rafts firmly clamped and bound together, with strong and substantial huts upon them for the navigators.
Each raft is generally composed of 4000 large trunks of oak trees, which are covered with knees and smaller pieces roughly shaped after drawings and instructions sent to the cutters. This is done that the timber may be made available at once for use in the dockyards. After being floated as far as the current will take them down the Dnieper, they are met by the Government steamers outside or inside the bar ort" the mouths of that river, and thus towed up to Nicholaieff'. Some small steamers must be kept at Nicholaieff, at all events at this moment, but they have never stirred, nor have we seen any traces of them in the Bug. Cherson was the great ship-building and maritime yard for the Black Sea fleet in former days, but the difficulty of building large ships there, or rather of getting them away when once they were built, on account of the shallowness of the water on the bar of the Dni(;per, forced the Russian Government to remove thenestablishments to Nicholaieff, on the confluence of tlie Bug and of the Ingul.
The bar of the Bug has a depth of eighteen or nineteen feet; the bar of the Dnieper has only eight feet water upon it in ordinary seasons. The ships of the line are built at Nicholaieff, but it is not improbable that small vessels and frigates of light draught may still bo constructed at Cherson. The arsenal at Nicholaieff is very extensive, but its principal supplies of timber came from the Dnieper, and the loss of these two rafts will be no inconsiderable injury. Fine oak timber such as they contain is very dear and scarce in Russia. The timber in the casemated Spit Battery, and the expense of erecting it, came to no less a sum than 45,000 silver roubles, or 7500Z.
English currency. It remains to be seen if Austria can supply Russia with wood, as she already furnishes her with oil, groceries, and manufactures of all kinds; that is, they are brought to Southern Russia through the Austrian provinces. Sir Edmund Lyons has presented one of the rafts to the French — an act of courtesy and consideration which our polite allies no doubt estimate at its full value. Their dimensions are as follows: — The first is 420 feet long by 63 feet wide, and is 6 feet deep. The second is nearly the same length as the first, 54 feet broad; it grounded in eight feet water. At a rough calculation, the two rafts contain 90,000 cubic feet of the finest timber, and the present made by the English fleet to the French, through our Commander-in-Chief, cannot be estimated at a lower value than 20,000Z.; at least, if the timber was in England, it would be well worth the money, for the majority of the balks, sjiars, and centre pieces composing it are of the very finest white oak.