Literally and truly, it is like glue half boiled and spread over the face of the earth for the depth of several feet. It is no joke for a soldier to see his sleeping-place, in hut or tent, covered with this nasty slime; yet they cannot be kept clean. Take but one step outside, and j^ou are done for. The mud is lying in wait for you, and you just cai-ry back as much on your feet as if you had walked a mile. Carts stick immovably in the ground, or the wheels and axles fly intopieces from the strain of the horses and mules. These have, indeed, led a -vvT'etched existence ever since this weather began. As I write, the air resounds with the noise of the blows inflicted on the heads, sides, and legs of the miserable quadrupeds drawing fuel and stores from the Commissariat depot of the division.
But then, it wUl be said that huts can be swept out and cleaned. Doubting the fact considerably from my personal experience, I must be pennitted to tell our good friends the pubUc that they are labouring under great delusions respecting these same huts. Now what, for example, do tbey think of the Guards being at this present moment under canvas, and likely to be so till the middle of January or thereabouts? It is, of course, no <i:reat privation in ordinary weather to have to live in a sound, wellpitched tent, but it is as Avell to let the truth be known. The new huts are much complained of, and it is said they are frail, ill-made, full of chinks, and knots which drop out, and leave inimical little embrasures for the'wind to shoot through.
During a moderately strong breeze of wind, a short time ago, the roof of one of the hospital huts at the Monastery went off on a mission of its own, and left the poor inmates shivering in the cold till they were removed to another building. The hut in question, however, was built before the new huts arrived. The tents now issued to the army are new and good, and most of thewar and timeworn fabrics inside which our gallant ancestors reposed in Egypt or Spain have been condemned, and are used as outsides for the new tents, or as covers for huts, officers' quarters, stables, and fabrics of that kind. The authorities at home, you already know, refused the application of the Commissariat for more tarpaulins to cover the stores, " because they were very expensive." Well, the wet weather came on — hay began to smoke, corn and barley to heat; and the Commissariat officers were obliged to purchase canvas wherever they could to prevent the loss of thousands of pounds' worth of property, not to speak of the mischief to the army.
But the " holders of canvas stood firm;" they saw their opportunity, and they refused to sell it for less than two shillings a yard, at which sum many hundred yards were purchased for the Commissariat store of this division. But even now the stores are badly protected, for there is no pitch or tar to cover the canvas, although there is a vessel reported to be in Balaklava with 300 tons of these useful articles on board for the express use of the army. December i. Some accidents occurred during the races. General Lawrenson, when riding in admirable style, a good second, got " a purl," owing to the swerving of his horse, but he received no greater injury than a slight shaking and a scratch on the nose; and there was the usual number of spills on the course.
One officer was ridden down in the rush from one point of the course to the other, and was taken away in a state of insensibility. These rushes were tremendous, not less than 4000 horses at it togetherand no small amount of kicking, biting, and tumbling going on at the same time. In the evening, 110 of the officers interested