There is much to be done with this regiment if we wish to make war in deserts, or to pass the wastes created by flying Cossacks. Not less than 1500 animals — mules and horses — have perished in a short time since the wet weather set in, and the sick stables are crowded. It is evident there must be some radical defect in any corps in which such a mortality could take place, and the defect is certainly not attributable to the officers of the regiment. As an instance of our being really " a standing army," I may point out that the Army Works Corps has been sent out liei"e without the smallest provision being made for its mobilization, and Mr. Uoyne could not send 500 men to accompany our expedition ten miles into the country in a fit state to throw up works, and provided with tools and the necessaries of their trade, if the safety of the army depended on it.
Every effort has been made to diminish the strain on the transport. The carriage of huts has ceased, and officers now draw their own forage; and, indeed, it was desirable to check the strong equestrian tendencies of our excellent infantry officers, who, when off duty, delight in an irregular cavalry Bashi-Bazouk existence, scom'ing the plains in dog-hunts or foragmg m Kamiesch or Kadikoi from the piu'e love of the thing. It is very hard on some men, and it is very just towards others, to make them draw provisions for their own horses, but it is still found that, do what we can, the Transport Corps must have "rest," and it is now ordered that all wagons, carts, &c., belonging to it shall be cleared out of Balaklava by two o'clock on each day.
It is fortunate our roads have stood the ordeal of this bad VOL. II. c c weather so well; the pressure upon them has been very great, and has exceeded the anticipations of the authorities, for the Preuch are most liberal in their patronage. Tlie objectors who at first clamoured against i\Ir. Doyne, and said his roads were too wide, his ditches too deep, and his drains too large, now hold their tongues, or candidly admit they were in error. In fact, the trains of carts often block up in regular Temple-bar fashion even now, and the situation is not pleasant when it occurs between deep cuttings. The drainage has been well maintained, but it has been necessary to watch the culverts made of barrels, as the wood was stolen at night for fuel.
The railway is in excellent order, and the locomotives to Kadikoi run up and down incessantly with such trucks as are left. The French roads are not good, and they have been forced to place large working parties upon them. The winter has set in, but cold and frost have lost their terrors for the army now. There is an old saying that " a green Christmas makes a full churchyard," and it might have been realized, inasmuch as the cholera had appeared in the Highland regiments — notable sufferers in epidemics of the kind — and some cases had occurred in other regiments, before the thermometer fell below freezing point. On Tuesday forenoon the thermometer was at 55°; on Wednesday it was 50°; on Tliursday it fell to 28°; on Friday it was 22°; this moi-ning it mai-ked 20° Fahrenheit.
With moderate exercise, hard ground, good footing, good feeding, warm clothing, and occupation, there is little reason to entertain any apprehension for the troops during the winter. It must be stated, however, that the complaints against the new huts are numerous and well founded, and during the recent wet weather it was seriously proposed to remove the men out of the huts and put them into double tents. 'L'hey never were Intended, I presume, to keep out water without some felt or waterproof covering, and up to the present moment none has been provided, and not even the tar and pitch in one of the vessels at Jialaklava can be landed. Still this will be a joyous Christmas, as far as it can be away from friends and home.