It contained immense quantities of malMel, and was filled with the huts of the otficers Avho lived in it. There were three mairazines in the place; they are now black craters, emitting a smell like Gehenna. The manner in which this great disaster was caused is said to be this: — Some French artillei-ymen were engaged in shifting powder from case to case in the park, and, as the operation is rather dangerous, every precaution was taken to prevent accidents. The powder was poured from one case into the other through copper funnels, and no fire was allowed near the place where the men were so em.ployed. As one of the soldiers was poin-ing the powder out of a case he perceived a fragment of shell gliding out of it into the funnel, and, not wishing to let it get into the other case, he jerked the funnel to one side; the piece of shell fell on the stones, which were covered with loose powder, and is supposed to have struck fire in its fall, for the explosion took place at once.
Miraculous as it may appear, this artilleryman, who was, as it were, in the focus of the explosion, escaped alive, being only slightly burnt and scorched. His comrade, who held the other case, wa.s blown to atoms. Another strange incident was the death of the commandant of the artillery for the day. He was in or near the park at the time of the explosion, and as soon as he had seen everything in order, as far as possible, he went off to have a look at the French batteries in and about Sebastopol, on which the Russians had just then opened a heavy fire. As he rode along, a cannon-shot struck off his head. Such is the story. The escapes that day were astounding.
Clothes were torn off men's backs; the chairs or beds ouAvhich they sat, the tables at which they were eating, the earth on which they stood, were broken and torn by shot, shell, rocket irons, shrapnel, grape, canister, and musket balls, which literally rained down upon them. It was fully two minutes ere the heavy voUej's of bursting shells ceased, and then sullen explosions for an hour afterwards warned the spectator li'om the scene. Some of the balls and pieces of shrapnel, whicli must have been projected a prodigious height iaito the air, did not fall to the ground for a minute and a half after the last of the explosions. For two minutes, which seemed as many hours, the terrible shower endured, and descended on the camp.
The distance to which fragments flew exceeds belief. It is difficult to explain it by mere names of localities. One piece of shell EFFECTS OP THE EXPLOSION.,351 flew over Catlicart's-hill; another killed a horse in New Kacllkoi. Some struck men and horses in the Guards' camp. One Hew over my hut; another struck the ground close to it; another went into the camp of the Land Transport Corps hehind it. Mrs. Seacolc, who keeps a restaurant near the Col, avers that;i piece of stone struck her door, which is three and a half or four miles from the park. In the Land Transport Corps of the Light Division fourteen horses were killed and seventeen were wounded. Pieces struck and damaged the huts in New Kadikoi.
Appalling as was the shock to those who were near, the effect was little diminished by distance. The roar and concussion were so great in Balaklava that the ships in harbour, and oiitside at anchor, trembled and quivered, and the houses shook to their foundations. The ships at Kamiesch and Kasatch reeled and rolled from side to side. Mules and horses, seven and eight miles away, broke loose, and galloped across the country, wild with fright. The noise pealed through the passes at Eaidar like the loudest thunder. In fact, the effect resembled some great convulsion of natm'e. iMany thought it was an earthquake; others fancied it was the outbm-st of a volcano; others, that the Russians had got hold of Lord Dundonald's invention, and that they had just given it a fii-st trial.
Indeed, one officer said to another, as soon as he recovered breath and could speak, " I say, that's a nice sort of thing, is it not? The sooner we go after that the better." He was persuaded the Russians had thrown some new and unheard-of instrument of destruction into the camp. The sense of hearing was quite deadened in many persons, and their nervous systems have not yet recovered the shock, so that any sudden noise startles them. The French had 6 officers killed and 13 wounded; 65 of their men, mostly of the artillery, were killed, and 170 were wormded, of whom many will never recover. The destruction in money value of articles appei-taining to the siege train was very great, and if the cost of the import of fi-esh articles be added, the sum will be considerable.