re
Sebastopol.

Gordon's connection with the Russian War and the Eastern Question did
not terminate with the Treaty of Paris. On 10th May he received orders
to join Colonel Stanton, for the purpose of assisting in the
delimitation of the new frontier in Bessarabia. He imagined that the
work would take six months; it really took a year. A not unimportant
principle was involved in this question, and an error in a map was
nearly securing for the Russians a material advantage. At the Paris
Congress it was determined to eloin the Russians from the Danube and
its tributary lakes and streams. The Powers therefore stated that the
Russian frontier should pass south of Bolgrad, judging from the small
scale-map supplied by the Russians that Bolgrad was north of Lake
Yalpukh, which opens into the river Danube. When the Boundary
Commission came on the ground, they found that Bolgrad was on Lake
Yalpukh, and that if the frontier passed to the south of it the
Russians would have access to the Danube; and therefore, knowing the
spirit of the Treaty, the English Commissioners referred the question
to the Paris Congress. A sketch was prepared by Gordon and his
colleagues, to show the diplomatists its exact position, and led to
the frontier being laid down north of Bolgrad and Lake Yalpukh.
Austria, as well as France, Turkey, and Russia, was represented on
this Commission, and Gordon's comrade was Lieutenant, afterward
General Sir Henry, James, who had served with him in the trenches, and
who had one day lost his way and walked into the Russian lines, as
Gordon himself had so nearly done.

Gordon's letters give an interesting account of his work, and bring
out with his usual clearness all the points at issue; but it is
unnecessary to follow very closely the events of the year he passed in
the lower Danube region. How excellent his work must have been can be
judged from the fact that the Government sent him back some years
later to act as British Consul at Galatz. The delimitation work
commenced with a personal inspection of the frontier from Katamori on
the Pruth to Boma Sola on the Black Sea, a distance of 200 miles. Then
the frontier was defined on the map, and finally it had to be marked
on the ground with the usual posts and distinctive marks. Thirty-two
separate plans had to be prepared before the frontier could be
adjusted, and the frequent bickerings and quarrels gave rise to many
surmises that the negotiations might be broken o