These fine buildings were closely surrounded in many instances by little houses covered with whitewash, occupied by the soldiers of the garrison or the poorer class of the civilian residents of the city. The hill presenting this view of the city is at the rear of the Flagstaff battery, and some two hundred feet above it, the face toward the Dockyard Creek, and is quite steep; it then turns toward the roadstead and descends quite rapidly to its level at the rear of the southern range of forts. From our point of view we could not see the houses on this face of the hill, but those along the eastern face, or the slope toward the Dockyard Creek, were fully visible. There was a slobodka, or poor suburb, at the base of the hill, and from this the houses stood in terraces, with winding roads and ranges of steps leading quite up to the brow of the hill. Looking carefully, one could see that the bombardment was having a severe effect on these buildings. The roof of a church, decorated with many small turrets and pinnacles at the angles had been struck by the shells and quite broken in; some of the best of the private residences were completely blown up, while others had their walls so cracked that there was no need of windows to admit the daylight; shot holes were apparent in many others, and in some instances the light showed through them from side to side. Columns, pillars, and doors were broken down or shattered near the Flagstaff works. In the rubbish of the slobodka there were several batteries which were in good condition, and although the Allies had thrown their fire severely upon them, they seemed to be in thoroughly good order. They formed part of the outlying works of the second line of the defences. Not all of them could be seen from Cathcart's hill, but the line of their position could be traced with comparative ease.
All at once, quite near the Flagstaff battery, between bastions 7 and 8, we saw three jets of flame curling up, followed by three pillars of dirt and dust fully one hundred feet into the air, and receiving a ruddy tint from the bright rays of the morning sun. We had been looking for these explosions, but the moment they came they took us by surprise. They were caused by the French, who had fired three mines, partly to
