sprinkled round the borders of the desolate plain. Going out of the camp in any direction, however, the prospect speedily became more smiling. Woods of low coppice appeared, having in the intervals vast corn-fields, spreading sometimes for miles in every direction. These were laid out in patches of wheat, oats, and barley, golden with ripeness, and of tall guinea-grass of deepest green. Amid the crops occasionally sprang up groups of trees of maturer growth than those in the surrounding woods. Bulgarian peasants, in parties generally consisting each of a man and two women, or young girls, were reaping in the patches of corn; their left hands, which grasped the stalks, being defended from the sickle by part of a bullock's horn pushed over the fingers. Quail were tolerably plentiful in these fields; and parties of sportsmen might be seen in all directions, who, taking soldiers for beaters in the absence of dogs, advanced in line across the fields. A party of three generally averaged about ten brace of quail and two or three hares in an afternoon. Crossing the common from Gevreckler, over patches of thistles and plowed land, the position of the Second Division was reached, commanding a spreading and magnificent prospect. Distant passages near Shumla could be discerned—great woody hills of graceful form undulated in tumbled confusion through the valleys-and on the south was seen the blue outline of the Balkan range.

Such was the brighter side of the picture, affording a temporary respite from the gloomy scenes which awaited us in camp. Accounts of friends, last seen in health, suddenly struck down with disease, and then reported dead-cries from the hospital tents of men in the agonies of cramps-silent groups of five or six digging, on the outskirts of the camp, receptacles for those who, the rigid outline of their features and feet showing through the blanket-shroud, were presently borne past, followed by the

officer who was to read the funeral service-sales of the clothes, camp-equipage, and horses of those who died yesterday—such were the dismal sights and sounds that spread a gloom over the army, and doubled its impatience for action. On that melancholy plain the Guards alone left seventy-two graves, many of which contained a double tenant. Besides the fatal cases, sickness of milder, though similar type was almost universal; and it is scarcely exaggerating to state, that not more than a tenth of the army remained in average health.

CHAPTER II.

THE MOVEMENT TO THE CRIMEA.

DEPARTURE OF THE FIRST DIVISION-FEEBLENESS OF THE TROOPS-A TURKISH VILLAGE-BALCHICK BAY-FLOATING CORPSES-SAILING OF THE EXPEDITION FROM BALCHICK BAY-AT ANCHOR-RECONNOITER OF THE COASTVOYAGE RESUMED-EUPATORIA-DISEMBARKATION COMMENCED A NIGHTSTORM-DIFFICULTIES OF DISEMBARKING-LANDING COMPLETED—THE ARMY

DESCRIBED-RATIONS-AMBULANCES.

Ar length came the wished-for order for embarkation, and the First Division moved, on the 23d of August, toward the sea, the men so enfeebled that their knapsacks were carried on packhorses during even a short march of five or six miles, and lamentably different in appearance from the splendid regiments who had marched past the Sultan on the plains of Scutari at the end of May. At the close of the first day's march, the artillery of this division halted at the base of the hills, near a Turkish village, so picturesque as to be worth describing. Its streets were green lanes, bordered by hedgerows of fine trees; on each side of the lanes were gardens, and each garden contained a mudwalled house, with thatched roof, having a farm-yard attached to it, one of the invariable features of which was a great, whitewashed, dome-shaped, clay oven. These lanes had a common center in a sort of village green, but I did not observe any sports going on there; all the inhabitants seemed sedate and apathetic,

except the girls at the fountains, who tittered and whispered as the martial strangers passed by, much as young female villagers of any other nation might have done. In a stackyard an old peasant, seated in a kind of sledge, with a little girl standing up beside him, was being dragged round and round by oxen, over loosened sheaves of corn. This was a luxurious mode of thrashing. The oxen, according to the Scripture precept, were unmuzzled, and occasionally stooped for a mouhtful. Milk, fowls, and fruit, were brought from here to the tents for sale, though at other villages the inhabitants had kept carefully aloof. Probably they were now beginning to discover that we were not robbers.

The portions of the English army, as they embarked, sailed at once for Balchick Bay, where the greater part of the Allied fleet lay. Thither the cholera still pursued us, and every day boats. might be seen leaving ships, towing a boat astern, wherein was a long motionless object covered by a flag. After a time the corpses, sewed in blankets or hammocks, and swollen to giant size, rose to the surface and floated upright among the ships, their feet being kept down by the shot used to sink them. One of these hideous visitants lingered about the foot of the accommodation-ladder of one of the transports, till men going down the side passed cords with weights attached over its neck, when it slowly sank. Gevreckler common was scarcely more depressing to the men than the bay at Balchick.

Part of the French army marched from Varna to Balchick, defiling along the hills above the beach, and embarking from their encampment. Day after day our own transports came up with troops, and the Turkish squadron, with the Ottoman portion of the allied army, also joined us. When all were assembled, we were still kept waiting by an adverse wind, against which the steamers could not have towed us. At length, on Thursday the 7th of September, we sailed with fine weather, and, when under

way, arranged ourselves according to order, in six columns, a division in each. The Light Division, which was next the shore, was distinguished by a blue and white checkered flag; the First Division, blue; the Second, white; the Third, red; the Fourth, white and red; the cavalry blue and red. Each steamer towed two transports-the men-of-war stationed themselves ahead and on our flanks—the French fleet was on our right. Most of the transports were East Indiamen of the largest class, equaling in size the frigates of the last war; the steamers were among the finest in the world; and though more numerous invading armies have traversed the Euxine, yet so complete and imposing an armament never before moved on the waters of any sea.

On the 9th we were signalled "Rendezvous 14," which meant "forty miles west of Cape Tarkan ;" and, on coming up with the ships ahead of us, at 6 P.M. we received the order to anchor. We remained at anchor the whole of Sunday the 10th, while Lord Raglan, whose headquarters were in the Caradoc, escorted by the Agamemnon, reconnoitered the coast. The day being fine, and the water smooth, boats were hoisted out and visits paid to other vessels, some of which had suffered much from the cholera. The delay was disagreeable and unexpected, as we had all calculated on landing in the Crimea on Sunday morning. Starting at noon on the 11th, we were signaled from the Emperor "Rendezvous No. 9," which meant "thirty-two miles west of Sebastopol;" and at sunset "Rendezvous 13," which meant Eupatoria." Squalls came on in the night, and our tow-ropes parted; the Kangaroo, which towed us, ran into the Hydaspes, and lost her bowsprit. In the morning of the 12th we were sailing far from any of the other ships, which appeared in different groups around us. Land had been sighted at dawn, and before breakfast we saw Cape Tarkan in the distance. On the previous day, the French, who had fallen astern, came in sight;