SHUMLA.


The following description of Shumla, by an experienced officer, will at
this moment, be particularly interesting:--

"What is properly called the town of Shumla, is nearly surrounded by a
rampart of Mount Hæmus, or the Balkan, which descends on both sides in
the form of a horse-shoe. The steep slopes of this great fence are
covered with detached rocks and close thorny bushes. The nature of the
ground makes it a most advantageous position for the Turkish soldier,
who when sheltered by these inequalities, rapid steeps and a few
intrenchments, displays all the address of the most skilful marksman.
Like some orators, who cannot express themselves unless when partly
concealed by a table or tribunal, the Turk cannot use his musket unless
he can rest it on a stone or against the trunk of a tree, but then his
aim is infallible.

"The town is about a league in length, with half that breadth, and may
contain from thirty to thirty-five thousand souls. The fortifications
are of barbarian architecture; a ditch, with a simple rampart, partly of
earth, partly of brick, flanked here and there with little towers, which
serve neither for support nor resistance, and which contain not above
seven or eight fusileers. But it is not the town itself which is to be
considered, but the vast intrenched field in the centre of which it is
placed, and which is capable of containing an immense army, with its
magazines, its utensils and equipage, without the enemy having the power
to throw a single shell into the place, or disturb it by any manoeuvre