532 
THE SHIPKA PASS. 
discharge than the other. To avoid total destruction of the embrasures 
we resolved to revet them with gabions and fascines, changing the axis 
of the embrasures, but keeping the same dimensions as before. 
Revetting with gabions also had the advantage of diminishing the 
number of stones thrown up by the bursting of the enemy's projectiles 
in the embrasures, and therefore the probability of wounds and bruises 
to the men. These had done damage enough already, some had been 
thrown into the bores of the guns, and others had cut the men very 
severely about the face and hands. 
During the firing we also noticed that the trail tore up the ground 
very much in its recoil. To remedy this serious inconvenience, one of 
our officers, Lieut. B., proposed to place broad flagstones under the 
trail, such as were to be found in great numbers in rear of the battery 
on the stony slopes of Mount St. Nicholas. The force of recoil was a 
great hindrance to the firing, sometimes the trail would penetrate so 
far into the rear traverse, that it required the united efforts of the whole 
detachment to move the carriage forwards, but without this rear traverse 
it was worse. The gun recoiled almost as far as on a perfectly hori¬ 
zontal surface, and that made it most dangerous for the gunners who 
had to leave cover to run it up again, and thus exposed themselves to 
the fire from the Turkish trenches in front and on the flanks. To move 
the traverse further back would have increased the interior space in the 
battery, but would have offered a better mark to the enemy, and the 
primary raison d’etre of the traverse, to limit the recoil, would have 
been lost. We therefore determined to leave the traverse in its present 
position, and to revet it on the inside with gabions and fascines, to 
break the shock of the recoil, and to prevent the trail from digging in. 
The terreplein was also to be cut down in a slope towards the parapet, 
the soles of the embrasures lowered, and their exterior dimensions 
increased, which measures permitted of our sweeping the slope of the 
hill in front, and diminishing the dead angle. 
Each gun was separated from the one next to it by a traverse, which 
joined the parapet at the same height, and was one foot lower in rear. 
The full of the superior crest of these traverses permitted of an officer 
standing in rear of them, and at the same time watching the effect of 
the shot and superintending his two guns. For general purposes of 
observation steps were cut in the rear traverse (parados), standing on 
which an observer could see “ Devyatiglazka" over the crest of the 
parapet. The officers standing at the rear of the traverse, were, how¬ 
ever very much exposed to the enemy's fire, and to avoid this a gabion 
was placed at the rear of every traverse to protect the observer from 
bullets, &c., from the right, while a fascine was laid along the top of 
the traverse, projecting over its rear end, to protect his head from 
those from the left, and steps were cut in the rear to enable him to 
ascend and descend. 
It was also decided to build blindages for the men, and this subject 
was brought before an officer of sappers, whose duty it was to carry 
out repairs in the battery under the orders of the officer commanding, 
But all our projected improvements and repairs could not be carried 
out in one day, so the most important had to be first taken in hand, 
