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6 BATTLE OF TIIH ALMA. C H A 1'. and the flanks of the bastion there built by nature, ' giving a conmiand towards the south-west, the west, the north-west, and the north-east. Towards the west, tliis terrace, if so it may be called, is all but joined to those mounds which we spoke of as barring the entrance of the Pass, liehind all these natural ramparts there are hollows and dips in the ground, which give ample means for con- cealing and sheltering troops ; but from the jut- ting rib down to the bank of the river, the slope is gentle and smooth like the glacis of a fortress. It was on this Kourgan^ Hill that Prince iMent- schikoff established h-is headquarters. Tiie immediate approach to the river from its right bank is everywhere gentle, but the ground on its south side is a good deal scarped by the action of the water; and all along that part of the river which flows opposite to the Kourgan6 Hill and the main Pass, the left bank rises almost vertically from the water's edge to a height of from eight to fifteen feet. On the north bank of the river, and at a dis- tance of about a mile from its mouth, there is the villaQ,e of Almatamack. On the same bank, but more than a mile and a quarter higher up the stream, there stood at the time of the war a large white homestead. Yet a mile higher up the river on the same bank, and nearly facing the entrance of the Pass, there stands the large strag- gling village of Bourliouk. The cottages and farm- buildings which skirt this village on its eastern side extend far up the river. From Bourliouk to