nt of
the position. Kars has been twice in the hands of the Russians
during the last thirty years, Paskievitch having taken it by
assault in 1829. We passed the battlefield at Kuyukdere, where
the Russians in very small force under Bebutoff were attacked by
a very superior force of Turks, under the direction of General
Guyon, the Hungarian. By some mistake the Turkish left lost its
way during the night, and was eight miles distant from the field
when the right came into action. The battle was very hotly
contested, but the Turks had at last to retire with the loss of
several guns. Had the affair gone off as Guyon[1] intended, the
Russians would have been licked. This battle, I should add, was
fought in August 1854, before any English officer had arrived in
this country. The Russian loss was very severe: there were 3,200
wounded alone brought into Gumri for treatment. The first day
from Gumri we passed Baiandoor, where the Turks and Russians had
a small battle in 1853, and where the former lost a splendid
opportunity of taking Gumri, which was nearly denuded of troops.
My Turkish colleague, Osman Bey (I believe this officer to be
identical with Ghazi Osman, the defender of Plevna), was present,
and got into Gumri as a spy, disguised in the character of a
servant. The Russian army avenged the slight check they received
from the Turks by taking all their artillery of the right wing."

[1] Guyon was an Englishman, but one of the National Commanders
in the Hungarian Rebellion of 1848. I have given a brief
account of his adventurous career at pp. 148-49 of "General
Gordon's Letters from the Crimea," etc.

As illustrating his professional zeal and powers of scientific
examination, the following description of the fortress of Alexandropol
or Gumri is a striking production from so young an officer:--

"The fortress of Alexandropol (40 deg. 47' N. lat., 43 deg. long.
45' E., 4500 feet above the sea) is situated on the left bank
of the river Arpatchai, which here forms the boundary between
Russia and Turkey. It is distant thirty-five miles from Kars and
eighty-four miles from Tiflis. The plain on which it is situated
is perfectly level and very peculiar. It has a stratum of alluvial
soil for the depth of one foot six inches on the surface, and then
a