MECHANICS AXD USEFUL ARTS. 25 



of food for the soldiers ; but even here, the real quantities almost transcend 

 one's power of belief. The food sent out to the French army included, 

 among many smaller items, about 30,000,000 pounds* of biscuit, 50,000,000 

 pounds of flour, 7,000,000 pounds of preserved beef, 14,000,000 pounds of 

 salt meat and lard, 8,000,000 pounds of rice, 4,500,000 pounds of coffee, and 

 0,000,000 pounds of sugar; these, with 10,000 head of live cattle, and 

 2,500,000 gallons of wine, were the main supplies for provisioning the 

 troops. Nearly 1,000,000 pounds of Chollet's compressed vegetables were 

 among the smaller but most welcome items. Nearly all the preserved meat, 

 in canisters, was purchased of English and Scotch firms; and the war 

 having ended before the vast supply was consumed, the remainder has 

 lately been sold by auction in London, by order of the French government. 

 The collateral manufactures and outlay to which the shipment of these 

 stupendous quantities of food necessarily led, were in themselves remark- 

 able ; for instance, no less than 260,000 chests and barrels were required to 

 contain the biscuits alone, and 1,000,000 sacks and bags for other articles. 

 The horse-food, simple in kind, presented a few large items : such as, 

 170,000,000 pounds of hay, and 180,000,000 pounds of oats and barley. 

 4,000,000 pounds of wood for fuel, 40,000,000 pounds of coal, charcoal, and 

 coke, 150 ovens to bake the food, 140 presses to compress the hay. These 

 help to make up the enormous total of 500,000 tons weight sent out, relating 

 to food, fodder, and fuel; requiring 1,800 voyages of ships to convey them, 

 to the east 



The clothing another great department of materiel comprised gar- 

 ments in such hundreds of thousands as it would be wearisome to enumerate. 

 It may afford, however, a clue to the matter to state that the number of each. 

 of the chief items generally ranges from 200,000 to 350,000. Some of the 

 items are quite French ; such as 240,000 pairs of sabots, or wooden shoes, 

 superadded to the 360,000 pairs of leather shoes and boots. The piercing 

 cold of the Crimean winter is brought again into remembrance by such 

 entries as 15,000 sheepskin paletots, 250,000 pairs of sheepskin and Bul- 

 garian gaiters, and 250,000 capotes and hoods. The materials for camps 

 and tents, almost as necessary to the soldiers as clothing, were, of 

 course, vast in variety and quantity. There were tents sufficient to accom- 

 modate 280,000 men ; those made and used in the first instance were shaped 

 somewhat like the roof of a house, Avith two upright supports, one at each 

 end; but after the dreadful hurricane on November 14, 1854, the French 

 adopted the Turkish form of tent conical, with one central support as 

 being better fitted to resist a violent wind. The harness and farriery de- 

 partment presented, as the most curious items, 800,000 horse-shoes, and 

 6,000,000 horse-shoe nails. Altogether, about 20,000 tons weight of men's 

 clothing, horse clothing, and tent apparatus was sent out. 



Accessories. The artillery supplies, the engineering supplies, the food, 

 fodder, fuel, clothing, harness, and camp apparatus, although furnishing the 



* In giving equivalents for French measure? and weights, we have estimated the 

 metre at about forty inches, and the kilogramme at 21-5th pounds, English. 



3 



