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breeze died away we were not able to go so far as we wished. We saw the forts and their firing, but there was no danger, as they take no notice of small boats. There appears still to exist a great want of management at Balaklava. We were ordered at Kamesk to go into the harbour. On arriving outside they were a long tome before they answered our signal, and when they did we could not make it out, so kept ours up with hope of that they would do the same while we went in closer. But they soon hauled theirs down and would not send it up again. We remained outside for the remainder of the day, and then went back to Kamesk. On the captain reporting himself to the authorities next day, they only said “We thought you would not be able to get in”. About a week later, we managed to get to Balaklava harbour which is completely hemmed in by almost perpendicular mountains, and it surprises me how it was ever discovered, as there is nothing to mark the entrance but the remains of an old Genoese castle, and can only be seen by getting close to it. The town is in a very dilapidated state. What houses there are are straggling up the side of a mountain at any convenient spot on which a hut can be placed. A few days after we got in, I and an army surgeon who went out with us, walked over to Sebastopol, having called on our way at Head Quarters for a pass. We met General Simpson, who answered our salutation. After a fatiguing walk we found ourselves in the midst of what the Russians called the ‘Blood-stained ruins’. They are such, in every sense, for there is scarcely any house with a roof, and those which have, are riddled with shot. The French and English are pulling to pieces what are left, so as to get at the timber wherewith to make huts. I went to the Redan and several other places on the English side; and, with a little scheming, managed to get into the French side also. But there were some parts they would not let us go into, as the Russians would see us, which would draw their fire. Even as it was, their firing was unpleasantly near. I was not sorry when we were walking out of the town and up the ravine which was strewed with shot and shell on all sides. On the heights above were enormous trenches, which ran down and across the Worinsoff road, up which we were going. Anyone to have an idea of what the conflict must have been in taking the town, should see the traces of the awful work. The town must have been a very splendid one, and enough still remains to convey that idea. The immense buildings and massive structures which were of white stone, all go to prove that it was of no ordinary size and splendour. On my return to ship I found myself completely knocked up. I could not have walked less than 25 miles, and I had scarcely recovered from an attack of dysentery; but after a few days rest, I felt no further inconvenience. My next trip on shore was to a gentleman to whom I had an introduction, and whom-