The foreground derives interest and animation from the graceful grouping and easy natural attitudes of the sailors on the deck of the Sidon, where we are introduced to another accurate and elaborate " portrait " of one of those gigantic implements of destruction which have inaugurated a revolution in every branch of scientific warfare; the subject, in this instance, being a pivot-gun weighing 87 cwt., and which throws an 8-inch solid shot.
Mr. Simpson's enumeration of the several objects of importance in this drawing is at once so graphic and so lucid, that we should be guilty of presumption were we to attempt to substitute for it any description of our own. He says: —
" On the top of the red cliff at the extreme left of the picture is the Wasp Battery; inwards from it is the North Fort; below these on the jwint of land is Fort Constantine; the long fort behind it is Fort Maximilian. On the South side is a very dark building, this is Fort St. Nicholas; to the right of this fort is a long line of guns forming the Quarantine Battery. At the entrance to the Quarantine Harbour, just above this, is the commencement of a long loop-holed wall, which extends to the very right of the picture; it ends at a now roofless building just behind the Flagstaff Battery, which is indicated by the smoke of a gun. With the exception of some suburban patches of houses now in ruins, the city of Sebastopol is enclosed on this side by the wall, and the tops of the houses alone are visible over it. The dark-coloured dome which surmounts the Church is seen above the wall; to the right of it is a large building, which is said to be a military club-house; to the right of this again is a building with a green roof, said to be the Theatre; over this is indicated the position of the Malakoff, beneath which are a great number of earth-works; not far from these, close to the sea, are still existing remains of the ancient Chersonesus; they are immediately above the men hoisting the flags. This drawing gives a correct idea of what are termed ' the heights above Sebastopol.' They are the greyish-green ground between the long wall and the snow-covered mountains in the distance; the highest point of this ground being 'Cossack' or 'Shell Hill,' exactly over the building with the green roof, the field of Inkermann being just in the hollow. To the right, between that and the next eminence on the southern side of it, precisely between
THE BAST.
the two lines to which the flags are attached, is the position of the camp of the Second Division. Over fort Saint Nicholas is the Inkermann West Light, from which the Russians can throw shells upon Cossack Hill; upon the higher ground behind is the Inkermann East Light. The foreground represents the deck of Her Majesty's ship Sidon, engaged in the blockade of the port of Sebastopol; the two flags being hoisted are part of a sentence, and express the word 'Eussians,' the men being engaged in reporting to the Admiral of the Fleet the arrival of some of the enemy's troops and waggons."
PLATE XXIII.
EMBAEKATION OF THE SICK AT BALAKLAVA, Looking South.