THE 17TH OF OCTOBER. 357 tine;* but then, with a sudden bend, this live- chap. fathom line passed trending away to the west and _L L_ south-west, running parallel in that last direction with the seaward batteries of the fort, and at a distance I'roni them of eleven or twelve hundred yards. From this configuration of the shoal it resulted that, although a line-of-battle ship at- tempting to attack from the west could not come at all near to Fort Constantine, she still would rointat which a find water enough at that sudden bend just now ship of the ° ** . , linccoul.l mentioned, where the edf^e of the shoal was within approacii ' ° to wiUiiu ei'dit hundred yards of the fort, What made this soo yards o J of the fuit. formation of the shoal the more interesting was, the now apparent fact that the point where a great ship could float within eight hundred yards of the fort was on that very line of impunity, or comparative impunity, where a vessel might act against the fort — nay, might rake it obliquely from its gorge to its eastern face — without incur- ring a fire from any great number of guns. Before partincj with Lyons on the morninfr of Tasks . . -r^ ^ , assigned to the action, Dundas (who had hitherto limited his the iu-sho.-e squadioii. designs to a mere prolongation of the French line) was moved to take advantage of the opportunity thus offered ;t and having, as we saw, in his fleet
- The five-fathom line sufficiently represents the bonndary
which kept off line-of-battle ships ; and there was no question of attacking with gunboats or other small vessels. t He was so moved, as I understand, by Lyons. I imagine that the merit of discovering the weak or 'dead angle' of the fort belonged in great part to the French, and that Lyons, iu inviting attention to this subject, was in some degree conveying their suggestion.
