from any part of our approaches, although that part of
the wall near the barracks, as well as the wall at right
angles to it stretching towards the suburb, were plainly
visible in the dip between the Great Redan and
Malakhoff hills. The English engineers are preparing
to destroy the three docks first reached on entering by
the opening just mentioned; the French, those nearest
to the Karabelnaia port. They have adopted different
methods for effecting this object. The English
engineers are sinking shafts at certain intervals outside
the walls of the several docks; the French engineers
are excavating galleries beneath the foundations of
those which are in their hands. The French method
will probably be the most complete, but as they have
to work in the rock beneath the paved stone of the
dock, it is by far the more laborious. By the English
plan, the shaft is sunk through a gravelly soil of recent
formation, and has to be supported by wooden linings.
The force of the charge will be directed against the side
walls, and the masonry will be projected into the
bottom of the dock. By the French plan the foundation,
as well as the walls, will be raised and broken up,
and the whole will fall in a heap of ruin, such as we
now behold the remains of Fort Paul, the most successful
of Russian mining. Looking down on the docks of
the Karabelnaia from the high ground near the
entrance, there appears such a perfect unity in their
design, the scale on which they are built is so
magnificent, the execution of the work so perfect, that it is
impossible to watch the operations of the miners for
their destruction, without a feeling of regret that so
vast an expenditure of wealth and labour, such toil of
mind and ingenuity of thought, should have been
employed and exercised to so little good result; and
further, that it should not now be consistent with
international policy that, instead of demolition, their
capacity should be converted into more profitable uses
for the future. It is presumed that although all the
preparations are to be completed, the actual explosion of
the mines will not take place until future operations
shall induce the necessity of the troops quitting their
position."

The aspect of Balaklava is described by the correspondent
of the Daily News.—"In Balaklava there is a
High Street, a Railway Street, and a Raglan Square:
not that I can say much for the architecture of the
houses, the majority of the buildings being simply huts
used as stores and barracks; but at Kadikoi or the
bazaar there is some attempt at regularity. The number
of grocers and drinking-houses in this small collection of
wooden buildings is astonishing; but the three best
stores are Oppenheim and Co.'s, Silver and Co.'s, and
Crockford and Co.'s; and with these three most of the
English officers deal. When riding through this village
the other morning I noticed the following sign-boards—
'James Golborn and Co., of London'; 'Thomas Booker
and Co., agents to J. W. Silver and Co., London and
Liverpool'; 'Oppenheim and Co., restuant only for
officers'; 'Ariel Store—J. Lawson'; 'Dickens and
Warren, London'; ' Coockford and Co., wine-merchants,
of St. James's Street, London '; ' The Navy and Army
Hotel, London '; 'Restaurant du Lunion—Bierre
Liqurs'; 'Refreshments, London—Restaurant de
Rôme '; 'Sellier Satller'; 'Railway Tavern and
Eating Room, by Jas. Matthews, London'; 'Restaurant
des Officers Allies.' This last establishment is clean and
well served in every way, although not much frequented
by the English."

Dr. Hall furnishes a pretty satisfactory account of the
health of the army. The number admitted into the
hospitals for the week ending 9th October was 1550, of
whom 51 died; in the following week, the number was
1626, of whom 51 died. The men were well clothed and
fed. Colonel M'Murdo, in his weekly report on the state
of the Land Transport Corps, gives a favourable opinion
on the progress of its organisation. The corps had
14,737 animals on the 10th October. Young English
drivers had arrived, "a timely resource," for "the
natives had begun to desert in great numbers." He
mentions that a "floating factory" had arrived, which
"brought Woolwich" to the British army in the
Crimea. He reports well of the state of the roads.

The Daily News correspondent describes the state of
the General Hospital in Balaklava.—"It consists of a
square stone building and twenty-one huts. The former
is occupied by officers and soldiers, and the latter by
army works corps men, navvies, engineers, civilians, and
sailors from the ships in the harbour, in the proportion
now of about eleven inmates to each hut. Attached to
the General Hospital are fourteen nuns, who lately
arrived froni Kululee Hospital, on the Bosphorus. One
of them to every three huts is employed in attending the
sick, and the remainder attend the soldiers in the stone
building. Dr. Hall, I believe, originally only applied
for the services of four Sisters of Mercy, but the
Roman catholic clergyman at the head of the whole
charity sent all that there were at Kululee, and they
arrived in the Crimea with Miss Nightingale from
Scutari about a fortnight back. When riding up under
the castle to the Sanatorium, where the wounded are,
I met three protestant military chaplains, who were
actually bigoted enough to state that they were glad the
"sisters" were not with them, quite forgetting,
apparently, the services they might perform for the
sick. To this hospital are attached about eight nurses,
who not only attend upon the men, but they also cook
the different comforts for both men and officers, the
latter occupying one hut. To the south of the huts is a
large one, which has just been doubly lined for the
winter, and in which the nurses and Miss Nightingale
live, the latter having about one quarter of the hut
divided into two rooms, which certainly are but very
scantily furnished—a bed, shelf, table, and chair comprising
almost all, except a few bibles and testaments,
&c."

Painful accounts are given of the prevalence of
drunkenness in the army. The correspondent of the
Times says:—"Yesterday was Sunday. I rode into
Balaklava at one p. m., through Kadikoi Major,
and returned, towards dusk, through Kadikoi
Minor. The sights I saw, both going and returning,
were enough to make an Englishman despair of his
countrymen. All along the road were men—not only
privates but non-commissioned officers—in every stage
of drunkenness. Sobriety was really the exception,
intoxication the rule. Noisy groups, flushed and unsteady
with drink, were interspersed with staggering sots who
could not keep on their legs. Two Highlanders, one of
them on the ground, the other making violent and
fruitless efforts to get his comrade to stand up, were
affording, at two in the afternoon, great amusement to a
number of French road-makers. Sunday is not a day of
rest for the French working-parties. Three hours
later I passed a group of three non-commissioned
officers of some line regiment. The centre man was
kept from falling only by the support of the two others,
themselves far from sober, and the trio made the most
of the road after the most approved fashion. Numbers
of officers must have met this group, and the natural and
proper course would have been to take their names and
send them at once to their quarters under arrest; but
drunkenness here has reached such a pitch that it would
be an endless task to do this. The tavern booths of the
Old Kadikoi were crowded with drinkers, and rang
with oaths, obscenity, and brawls. Notwithstanding
the closing of many of the establishments there, the
place is still a scene of life and bustle, while Little
Kadikoi, hard by the Guards' camp, has not upon
weekdays the appearance of doing much business. But in
the evening when the working-parties come off duty,
and on Sundays, when they have none to do, it is as
much thronged as the booths on a race-course or at a
fair, or as the hack slums of a seaport town when half-a-
dozen men-of-war have just been paid off. Drink, of
course, is nearly the sole object of its frequenters, and
drink, not in moderation, but to the most beastly excess.
Yesterday towards nightfall, it was more than several
officers, non-commissioned officers, and patrols, could do
to maintain something like order, and master the
insubordinate and refractory drunkards. . . . . . .
Considering that, besides his working pay, the soldier
gets 13d. a day to spend, it is hard to see what objection
there can be to invest the other 8d. for his future welfare,
instead of leaving it to be squandered in the pot-house.
Unless you took him by the arm and led him up to
the tap, you could hardly do more to induce him to