back off their sides, without leaving any impression, save such as a pistol hall makes on the target in a shooting-gallery. The shot could be heard distinctly striking the sides of the battery with a " shai'p smack," and then could be seen flying back, splashing the water at various angles according to the direction they took, till they dropped exhausted. On one battery the dints of sixty-three shots are visible against the plates of one side, not counting the marks of others which have glanced along the decks or struck the edges and angles of tlie bulwarks, and all the damage that has been done to it is the slight starting of three rivets. The men are all below, except a look-out man, in a shot-proof box on deck, and the casualties arose fi'om a chance shot which came through the ports.
Our smaller gun-boats started in the same direction soon after dawn, and RearAdmiral Sir Houston Stewart, having sent off his despatches to Sir Edmund Lyons, hoisted the signal for the large gun-boats and steam-sloops under his command to weigh anchor. At nine o'clock, with his flag flying in the " Stromboli," he led the way towards the confluence of the Bug and Dnieper. He was followed by the *' Gladiator," " Spiteful," and " Triton" steamers, and by the •"Wrangler," "Snake," and "Viper" gim-boats; and a whole shoal of gun-boats, small and large — " Cracker," " Grinder," "Clinker," " Fancy," &c. — were some miles in advance, cruising, in company with the French squadron, among the intricate ehoals which guard the entrances to the Dnieper.
Before we weighed in the morning a French boat left the Eear-Aclmirars ship with a large flag of truce for OczakofT. She carried the reply of the allies to the request sent by the Russian general under a flag of truce the previous day, and informed him that the "major-general who had commanded in Kinhurn se parte a merveillc, that forty-five wounded Russians were in the French ambulances, and that the French general regretted he could not state the names of the officers who were prisoners," but he did not say whether that was owing to any difficulties in orthogi'aphy or not. As the boat neared the beach, an officer, followed by two soldiers, came from the town to meet them. One of the men bore a tremendous flag of truce — there could be no Hango mistake about it; he had a large tablecloth suspended from a long pole, imder the weight of which he staggered as he walked.
The boat touched the beach, and, with much formal bowing and marti;d civilities, the missive was handed to the Russian, who retired with his tablecloth waving behind him up the hill, and was lost to sight amid the houses. The weighty objects in the ruined fort of Nikolaev are removed, and, owing to the fresh breeze or the renewed efforts of the Russians, the fire in the broken mass of stonework and timber spread, and thi-ew out columns of white smoke this morning. Two old priests scrambled down to the ruins of the fort, and, with their flowing robes and long beards, seemed like ancient prophets invoking maledictions — as no doubt tliey were — upon the fleet. Oczakoff'is to be left untouched; indeed, we could do very little with it, as we should not be in a position to hold the fort against the large force which could be moved against it, and they could not be reached by the guns of the fleet, owing to the shoal water.
Thus they might hammer away at the garrison from the commanding ridges in rear of the town. Besides, the possession of Kinburn is enough for us, and secures all the objects we have in view. Above the long low Spit on which the fort stands we could see the hulls of the men-of-wiu* high above the water on our right hand, and the high cliffs of the steppes of Cherson on our left, the latter tapering away in the distance to the promontories of the Bug. The steam squadron, anchored inside Kinburn Spit, could cross fii-e with the vessels in deeper v/ater on the other side. In order to avail ourselves of that advantage the troops are drawn inside the fort and nearer to the extremity of the Spit, so that an enemy marching to attack the position would be exposed to a terrible raking fire along the whole of his front, and from the fleet on both his flanks and centre.