THE RUSSIAN FLEET AT CRONSTADT.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 67, 17 November 1855, Page 3

THE RUSSIAN FLEET AT CRONSTADT.

[From tho Illustrated London News.~\

The allied fleet now extends from the London Shoals to the Tolboukin Light, thence far along the northern shore to the town of Cronstadt, and still the cry is "they come" — liner and block ship, screw-frigate and paddle, gunboat and mortar-vessel : and now or never is the time that something must be attempted. Not that we are likely to go in and attack the forts, whatever might have been done last year. The difficulties are now very great, if not insurmountable. A range of submarine piling runs in one unbroken line from Lisi Ness to a point where the town is out of range. From this same Lisi Ness to Man-of-War Harbour a large portion of the Russian fleet lies moored. It consists of several line-of-battle ships, frigates, and corvettes ; these are backed by a goodly number of gun-boats, and, singular to say, twenty of them are propelled by steampower. It is said the locomotives were taken off the railway for this purpose ; but the factory at Cronstadt, under the direction of an Englishman named Baird, is fast making many more.

On the northern shore the most elaborate earthworks, now green with the vegetation of spring, protect it from any light attack in that direction ; these have been constructed since last year. In the regular channel above Risbank their best ships are lying ready for sea, with their ensigns and jacks Wended with the flags of Cronstadt and Risbank. These, of course, are so placed as to command the channel. On a fine day the whole is not a bad panorama. On either side of you stretches the dark yellow waters from the Neva, the shores now verdant with spring and the stately pine, and dotted with many beautiful villas as far as the eye can reach. In the distance the magnificent dome of St. Isaac's, and the gilded spires of the churches of St. Petersburg, may be seen clear against the faint blue sky, with the white sails of the Russian meu-of-war

boats gliding across them at intervals. Altogether the scene is a singular one. Here is an immense force, with the naval resources of three nations, in close proximity ; and still so equally has the game been played'that neither side has fired a shot.

But the forts are the most magnificent objects in the picture. There they stand, the very personification of solidity, with portholes and guns frowning tier above tier; and so well are they kept in repair, in defiance of the frosts, that they look from this distance as if fresh from the builders' hands. This neatness in fortification appears to be quite a rage with them. Everything is arranged to catch the eye. But Nature has done a great deal for the Russians both at Cronstadt and Sebastopol, and they have taken every advantage of what she has given them as a foundation for works of defence.