166 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, nately, the conditions were such after the 14th VIII L_ of November, that this tardiness, whenever oc- curring, involved a corresponding delay in the Effect of the issuc of food to our troops. Before that 14th upon the of November, our troops on the Chersonese had ing reserves becu accustomed to liave in camp a reserve of camp. provisions that would last them for twenty-four hours ; but (along with other evils unnumbered) the hurricane blotted out a whole day of Com- missariat labour, thus preventing the reserve when consumed from being at once replaced ; so that thenceforth, until a reserve of food could be once more established in camp, our troops, living only ' from hand to mouth,' might have to wait for some parts of their rations until the expected convoys should make good their diffi- cult way from the port to the Chersonese Heights ; and a soldier marched off in the evening for duty in the trenches might either have to take with him meat in an uncooked state, or else be forced to content himself with his biscuit and his allowance of rum. Deficiencies Men accustomcd to the transactions of war as of .supplies, conducted in the stern old times, may smile at the notion of encouraging or enduring complaint when they learn that, despite the accumulation of misfortunes which made havoc with the means of land-transport, there was no default, after all, in the suj)ply of ammunition or biscuit ; and their scorn would be wholesome enough, if the time to which it applied were one of short dura- tion ; but it must be remembered that the trials of our soldiery on the Chersonese were destined
