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Inclosure 2 in No. 4.

Report of Committee on the Local Defences of Sierra Leone, appointed under authority of Circular Despatch,

Secret, of August 23, 1881.

Major F. B. P. White, 1st West India Regiment, Military Member, President. Mr. J. N. Compton, Navigating Lieutenant, R.N. (Retired), Naval Member. Captain H. M. Jackson, R.A., Inspector-General of Police, Colonial Member.

Tower Hill.-This battery has never been intended to form a defensible work. It is situated on the crest of a spur running out to the north from Tower Hill, and overlooks the town, the houses of which commence at the foot of the hill, about 300 yards from and 200 feet below the battery. The Government landing wharf is distant 1,100 yards. There is no parapet, and the hill slopes steeply and rapidly away from the edge of the terreplein, which is roughly marked out by a low irregular hedge of African heliotrope. The armament consists of six 24-pounder guns, mounted on old pattern iron garrison standing carriages, working on platforms, consisting of two parallel iron transoms roughly laid in rubble. On a small knoll, about 60 yards to the rear of the saluting battery, is placed the time gun, which is fired morning and evening,

The Committee do not recommend the construction of any defensible work on this side, as such would contribute little to the protection of the barracks, and would be almost useless to oppose a landing.

Defensible Barracks.-The wall inclosing these barracks is but ill-adapted to the purposes for which it was intended, there being no proper provision for flank defence. The main magazine is isolated from the general inclosure, standing clear of the main wall at the south-west corner.

It is most necessary that this should be brought within the general line of defence, which could be effected easily and efficiently by building a second loop-holed wall round the outer magazine wall, and continuing the flanks to join the main wall.

The Martello tower mentioned in the Memorandum* of the Inspector-General of Fortifi- cations as existing on Tower Hill, is now the main reservoir of the water supply of the barracks and town.

If the walls now inclosing the barracks were slightly altered in trace they would be sufficient to protect the place from a sudden rush, but the plateau on which the barracks stand is commanded within easy range by the hills to the south, and as these are overgrown with thick scrub mixed with trees, they would afford excellent cover for riflemen who could make the barrack hill almost untenable.

Fort Thornton.-This fort may be left out of the scheme of defence. It lies in the town and is surrounded by high trees. The adjacent houses have been built so close that they leave but a small open space on the sea-front of the fort, and on one side are merely divided from it by a road. The landing-place is completely masked from the line of the fort. Since the data were furnished from which the Inspector-General of Fortifications' Memorandum* was drawn up, Government House has been much enlarged, and portions of the fort have been destroyed to make room for the house, while the other parts have been built into it, until now it may rather be said that Fort Thornton forms a portion of Government House, than that Government House is situated in Fort Thornton.

The Committee recommend the abandonment of this position.

Sea Defences.

West Battery. This battery is situated on a narrow strip of land between the boundary wall of the Colonial Hospital and the edge of the cliff overhanging King Jemmy.

This cliff is so rapidly falling away that it would be necessary to encroach largely on the rather limited grounds of the Colonial Hospital for even so small a work as that suggested in the Memorandum, and it does not seem advisable that a battery should be erected so close to an hospital.

The Committee recommend that this position be given up entirely, and that as an alternative, and more efficient protection to the landing-place, an additional number of field-guns be supplied, as these would be of far more use in opposing any attempt to land in front of the town than a work in the cramped position of the West Battery.

Note. With reference to field-guns see recommendation in "Land Defences."

Fort Falconbridge.-The position of this battery is justly remarked in the Memorandum* of the Inspector-General of Fortifications to be the most important of the system. It is at present too small and too much out of repair to mount any heavy guns, and must be entirely reconstructed. The Committee recommend the erection of a strong redoubt, with armament as proposed by the Inspector- General of Fortifications, the sea face being so traced as to allow of the heavy gun on the left flank bearing directly on King Tom's Point, and that on the right on Farran Point, The medium guns to. be mounted in short flanks, so as to admit of their thoroughly enfilading the shore east and west. The rear of the fort to be strongly defended by loopholed casemates, to protect the work from assaults, either from a foreign enemy who had effected a landing elsewhere, or from disaffected natives.

Farran Point. The next point visited was Farran Point (usually called Fourah Bay Point). A fort erected on this point, of the strength suggested in the Memorandum, appears likely to remove all danger of any vessel of war being able to bombard the town from the eastward. The point is rocky, with a precipitous edge about 30 feet high. The rock is crumbling away a good deal, and the battery should be placed not less than 30 yards from the edge of the cliff.

King Tom's Point.--King Tom's Point was formerly the site of a strong battery, of which now hardly any trace remains, except one or two of the old guns dismounted and half buried in the bush, the stones having been gradually removed by people erecting buildings in the neighbourhood. The

* No. 7.

Appendix No. 4.

SIERRA LEONE.

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