COL. ANSTRUTHER THOMSON 185 



died of cholera on board ship on the 26th September, 

 and I know you will say with me that he will be 

 missed in the reorganising of the regiment, and more 

 particularly so when I give you the state of the 

 regiment as it was sent in this morning : — Horses : 

 Fit for duty, twelve ; sick, twenty-seven ; detached, 

 five — total, forty-four. That is all the horses we 

 can muster out of 250 we left England with, and 

 as to try to put one of them into a trot you 

 could not. 



" Many are the enquiries of what do they keep 

 you here for, and the only answer to this is that they 

 want to kill the remainder dragging up their own 

 forage. I am happy to see that we are to get a clasp 

 for Balaklava, for I think we deserve it. Our men 

 have suffered almost as much as the horses, for out 

 of 298 all ranks, we are now eighty short, besides 

 fifty-four sick at Scutari. I for one should not be 

 surprised if we lost all, for these canvas walls are no 

 joke. They are very well in fine weather, but that 

 is very rare here. 



" The troops are being supplied with good boots 

 and warm clothing now it is, I am afraid, almost too 

 late. We have got our huts up for our horses, and 

 when it don't rain they are almost as comfortable as 

 they were before, but when it does rain, then don't 

 they catch it ! 



" We are still on the alert, expecting an attack 

 from the Russians, but they do not like to come ; 

 and, in fact, we are like two dogs over a bone, one 

 is afraid, and the other dare not touch it. 



