Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 6.djvu/112

68 THE BATTLl'] OF INKERMAN. CHAP. VI, rUe Saddle- toji Reach. The Quarry Ravine. Thp Englisli Hei;'hts. From the summit of Shell Hill to the centre of the English Home Kidge, a distance of about 1300 yards, the spine of the upwold still maintain- ing a high elevation bridges over the interval by an easy bend, such as that along the back of a horse, from the withers-point to the croup ; but, as the means of approach for an army engaged in attack, tliis Saddle-top Reach is wanting in breadth ; for, whilst suffering deep encroachment on the east from the channel of the Quarry Ravine, it is straitened too on the west by the intrusion of the Mikriakoff Glen, and numberless dells or gullies. But the formation of the ground is such that the occupation of Shell Hill in strength must needs carry with it the control of the Quarry Ravine, including that upper part of it, seven hundred yards in length, which runs parallel with the Saddle-top Reach, and in this sheltered hollow an assailant determining to force his way southward over the hillock in front of the Isthmus would find a lair of great value from which to make his spring at a distance of only six hundred paces from the coveted goal. South-east of Shell Hill, and overlooking the approach by the Saddle-top Reach, there stand the English Heights. These bend so abruptly at their centre that, though forming throughout an entire and single mass of high ground, they still present two distinct ridges at right angles to each other, one ridge with a front towards the north, the other with a front towards the west.