Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/251

BY THE ALLIES. 221 established itself on tlio south coast, the Kussians, chap discharged of all cave for the safety of the Star L Fort and the wliole North Side of Scbastopol, were free to bring tlieir full strength to the scene of the actual conllict. Xext, it followed that along every yard of the line which defined both the town and its suburbs on the side of the water, the defenders were so and on their whole absolutely secure as not to need there for delence sea front, the presence of a single battalion. But, independently of that configuration of land and water immediately adjoining Sebastopol which served to aid the defence, there were features in the neighbouring countiy which could not but hamper an enemy who might advise himself, as the Allies were now doing, to sit down before the )a.ce on its south side. Since Sebastopol was no invest- upon the shore of the bay which bears its name, ticawe. , and since also the wliole bay was left in the uii- challenged dominion of the Ilussians, it lollowed that, in order to the investment of the place, the l>ay itself must be surrounded; and, it being on the west, and there only, that the Allied navy was master, the task of surrounding the bay in all other directions was one which could only be per- formed by laud forces. Now the bay, as we saw, stretched inland for a distance of three miles and a half; and the number of troops required for en- compassing such an arm of the sea on the north, on the east, and on the south, would have ranged far beyond the resources which England and Trance could command. Therefore the actual