centre. It has its gorge closed with a ditch and loopholed
wall. It mounts fifteen guns on the top, and fifteen guns in
casemate. It is proposed to connect it by a crenellated wall with
the main work. The tower marked _B_ has a ditch and small glacis.
It mounts eight guns in casemate, and eight on the top. Its
object is to flank the long ravine which runs southward from it.
All the buildings in the interior of the fortress are bomb-proof.
The great fault of the fortress as it is constructed at present
is that it does not so much as see the town with its population
of 9310. It is now proposed, however, to make a large work on the
site marked _K_ with a view of meeting this want. During the war
in 1853, when the Turks were 35,000 strong at Baiandoor, six
miles from Alexandropol, and the Russians had only two battalions
in the fortress, the latter demolished all the houses which were
on this ground. I think that should it ever be in our power to
besiege this place (which is not likely, from the enormous
difficulty of getting a siege train there), that batteries might
be established on the hillocks between the fortress and the
river, to breach the large _caponniere_ and the tower _A_ which,
from the formation of the ground, would not be opposed by more
fire than the direct fire of the works they were intended to
breach, and which would be limited by their circular form to
about seven guns. The soil is not unfavourable on these hills.
The hill on which the cemetery of the officers killed at Kars and
Kuyukdere is situated is also favourable for batteries. The
principal well, which is sunk to a good depth, is in the
north-eastern bastion."

General Gordon's letters contain two or three interesting descriptions
that, in view of more recent events, deserve quotation. Of the Kurds
he thus speaks, and the description stands good at the present day:--

"We met on our road a great number of Kurds, who live as their
fathers did, by travelling about, robbing, etc., with their
flocks. Their children are short of clothing. In spite of the
Cossacks, etc., they are as lawless as ever, and go from Turkey
to Russia and back again as they like. They are fine-looking
people, armed to the teeth, but are decreasing in numbers. They
never live in houses, but prefer tents and caves.