miral Boxer, as I ranged up alongside of his two-oared boat in the harbour of Balaklava: "You have just come in good time; something of consequence must be done immediately," and so it came to pass. In May, 1855, everything about Balaklava harbour bespoke the zeal and energy of Admiral Boxer. At the entrance of this remarkably deep and secure haven (land-locked by its enclosing hills, which were of reddish ochre colour, and nearly bare of vegetation) there appeared a strong chain cable, the extremities only seen as it was sunk by day and hauled up at night, as a protection against fireships or rafts from without, whilst inside 200 vessels of all sizes, were crowded, but all in perfect order, with their sterns to the shore, and leaving a clear space for vessels entering or leaving, and for boats in the middle.

A police boat rowed about to see that cleanliness was attended to, and every precaution was taken against fire. It was at first a wonder to me that none occurred

in Balaklava harbour during the summer and autumn of 1855, but remembering who organized the arrangements there, and superintended them, my wonder ceased.

"That blessed Admiral," (as a merchant captain, anchored among thirty other vessels outside, said,) "gives us no rest; he is up at four every morning, and not only sees that all is right and square inside, but comes outside with a pair of oars and rouses up the captain or agent of the vessel to give us our orders."

In America we had many proofs of the value of Admiral Boxer as a public officer, and had several communications with him regarding the defences of the St. Lawrence, &c.; his ideas were very excellent, and I cannot forbear paying a passing tribute to his memory. When I visited

his tomb on the hill-side near Cossack Bay, opposite Balaklava, the inscription was then, with regret I say it, only on wood, "Sacred to the memory of RearAdmiral Boxer, C.B., who departed this

life June, 1855." At his feet lies his nephew, Sydney Boxer, R.N.: both perished at their posts of cholera.

As the admiral predicted, "something of consequence" did take place in June, after the lull since the heavy bombardment of Sevastopol in April. Transports swarming with Sardinians and Frenchmen, besides red jackets, arrived, and good news of the fall of Kertch reached us at this time; 2,000 Russians having abandoned the place after blowing up the magazines, and leaving one hundred guns, clothing for forty thousand men, two hundred and forty vessls, great stores of corn, flocks and herds, in the hands of the victorious expedition to the Sea of Azoff.

For the work of the siege, and the business of the trenches, the greatest activity prevailed on shore, between Balaklava and the sea of tents in front, on the plateau overlooking Sevastopol. Parties of troops moved about on fatigue in grey linen suits, and the forage caps of their regi

ments. There were lusty and light dragoons on horseback, carts driven by Turks, Tartars, and Orientals of various nations in their turbans, red fezes, or fur skull-caps, embroidered round jackets and baggy trousers, whilst subaltern officers (facetiously called "rabbit skins," from the grey fur-lined jackets served out to them in winter) hurried past on their ponies, eager for supplies for their larder from the ships. Arrived on board a merchant vessel or transport, they, whilst effecting their purchases from the steward, told terrible stories of what went on in the trenches, about the General's Hut there, of legs, and arms, and heads carried off, so that one doughty fellow, a fresh arrival of a branch of the service which did not require to move behind a parapet, and who had laid a bet of fifty to one that he would go into the trenches and see all about them, said, when he understood that life was not worth half an hour's purchase there, that he would rather pay forfeit, for he was led to believe that the danger was so

great, that every one who went in there carried a sand-bag with him!

The frame huts, which some of us occupied at this time, were like young barns; the difference between the officers' hut and the men's was chiefly this - both had a door in one gable, and a glass window over it, and a corresponding window opposite. The officers' hut had

partition in the

centre, and the floor was boarded all over; whilst the men's had no partition, and the bare earth was seen in the passage up the centre. Centipedes of several inches in length, six or seven sometimes, infested the huts in May; mice, also, nibbled one's boots, then rats, of cat-like size, skirmished over one's body at night. Those who dwelt near the commissariat stores were tormented with myriads of flies, and at all times there was some plague or another, not the least of which was a numerous and active race of fleas, which oft-times "did make night hideous."