44 SEBASTOPOL BKFORE THE DATTLE CHAP. ])lateau. Tliis acclivity, as well as the eastermost III ! crest of the table-land or plateau at its top, is called Mount Sapouue* The only great break in the steepness thus dividing the table-land of the Chersonese from the plain is at the point some three miles from the southern coast, which was called the ' Col de Balaclava.' Along a distance, in a straight line, of about four miles, beginning from its north-easterly angle near the Inkerman bridge, and going thence westerly, the plateau is washed, for the first half-mile, by the Tchernaya, and lower down, by the waters of the Sebastopol bay ; but the rest of its water boundary is the open sea. The side of the Chersonese which lies towards the north is deeply jagged by creeks or bays throughout its whole length, iVom the Inker- man bridge on the east to Cape Chersonese on the west ; but on the south and south-western side of the plateau its shore-line has a different character ; for a seaman coasting along it from Cape Chersonese to the eastward would have on his larboard side a wall of rocks so unbroken, that although he might land a boat near the Monas- tery of St George he would look in vain for a sheltering bay like those which abound on the other side of the Chersonese, and it could be only after passing the plateau that he would be able to find an inlet. The port he would then find is
- This iiaiae was given to the acclivity by Russian sports-
men, who had felt the stress put on their lungs when they climbed in pursuit of game. The word 'Sapounti' in Kussiau tii<;iiifies that the steep is 'a breather.' — Kute to lid L'duion,
