Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/142

98 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, of, the dictation of Science prevailed ; and, her • guidance having once been accepted, men, of course, had to act in accordance with the com- mon resolve. What, under that aspect, was the duty of the English commander when consider- ing how his troops on the Chersonese must receive their supplies from Balaclava ? The then state of the roads was this : a waggon- track passing over dry clay, and for the time both firm and compact, led up from Balaclava by way of the Col to that farmhouse on the Chersonese which became Lord Eaglan's head- quarters, and thence on by various branches to other parts of the wold, including those about to be occupied by our divisional camps. It was evident that, being ' unmetalled,' this clay road might be so broken up by heavy and long- continued rains as to become impassable for wheeled carriages ; but the weather, at the time I am speaking of, was in a settled state ; and from wliat had been learned of the climate, there seemed to be ground for trusting — and the expectation proved sound — that no change of such kind as to imperil the comnnmication would take place until the end of October — a time when the two Allied armies (if Science was not misleading them) would already be housed in Sebastopol. And tlien also there was another resource ; for by moving a waggon-train northward from Balaclava over a distance of a couple of miles, it could be made to strike the Woronzoff Eoad - — a well -designed, well-' metalled ' causeway