80 KAMSGHATKA. [chap. 



small trees existed, and still exist, on tlie liill-sides surrounding this spot ; 

 and beliind them were posted Cossack sharpshooters, Avho fired into our men, 

 and either from skill or accident, picked off nearly every officer. The men, 

 not seeing their enemy, and having lost their leaders, became panic-struck, 

 and fell back in disorder. A retreat was sounded, biit the men struggling 

 in the bushes and underbrush (and in truth, most of them, being sailors,_ 

 were out of their elejnent on land), became much scattered, and it Avas 

 generally believed that many were killed by the random shots of their 

 companions. A number tied up a hill at the rear of the town. Their foes 

 pursued and pressed upon them, and many were killed by falling over the 

 steep cliff in which the hill terminates. 



" The inhabitants — astonished at their own prowess, and knowing that 

 they could not hold the town against a more vigorous attack — were 

 preparing to vacate it, when the fleet w'eighed anchor and set sail, and no 

 more was seen of them that year." 



The actual nimiljer that fell in this engagement is uncertain. 

 In the " Nautical Magazine " for October, 1855, it is stated that 

 we lost 107 killed and wounded, but we were told that the total 

 number of French and English who fell was 170 men. Under the 

 hill at the back of the town still stands a rude enclosure, whose 

 dilapidated white palings surround three crosses, beneath which 

 Eussians, French, and English lie side by side. Others were 

 buried where they fell. The bodies of some of the officers were 

 borne from the field by the Allied Forces, and interred at the en- 

 trance of the Tareinska Harbour on the opposite side of Avatcha 

 Bay. They lie on a small promontory on the land side, opposite a 

 little island. We had hoped to visit the spot, but the limited tune 

 we had at our disposal, and the preparations necessary for our ex- 

 pedition through the interior, prevented us. We were told that, 

 in the spring of the preceding year, a party, of which our inform- 

 ant formed one, had searched in vain for the graves, in spite of 

 that of the English admiral having been marked by a cross. The 

 death of this oflicer is by the inhabitants of Petropaulovsky at- 

 tributed indirectly to the result of the engagement. As a matter 

 of fact, it occurred, I believe, upon the preceding day ; the troops 

 durinsf the affair beinLi under the command of the French admiral. 



