15th August.
The ferment of war-excitement locally has been sustained at fever pitch during Saturday and yesterday. An almost incongruous touch of colour was given yesterday by the dressing of all the men-of-war in harbour, with Russian flags at the mast-head, the occasion celebrated being the birth of a Czarevitch.
Chief interest continues to centre in the sore-wounded Askold, in regard to whose ability to keep affost at all serious doubts were first entertained. On Saturday afternoon she succeded in coming upriver and getting alongside the International Dock. The work of temporary repair was there begun and continued throughout the afternoon and night. Needless to say the cruiser was an object of wide-spread curiosity, not the least interested observers being a party of Japanese, who crowded a launch which ran, with many other launches, and sampans alongside. A representative of this paper was one of avery fow visitors received on board the cruiser and he h recorded his impressions in anoth column.
The unsuccessful attempt made yesterday afternoon to get the cruiser into dook is also described. It was hoped to fi at her in on last night's flood as she was resting on the mud and not on the dock sill. This was accomplished st 1.30 a.m., a full hour before high-water and without any incident. The failure in the afternoon was duo to the fact that the attempt was postponed till too late, in the endeavour to get certain repairs finished outside. Meantime the Askold's officers and crow are talk ing confidently of the possibility of he temporary repairs being finished to enable her to leave within the ten days allowed by international law. Their sanguineness is not shared by many who have seen plight. ly after the arrival of the Askold on Friday, certain of her officers wont aboard the French flagship Montealm and were permitted to use her wireless telegraphic apparatus, with the object of getting into communication with the other Russian cruisers supposed to be in the vicinity. On Saturday afternoon a launch brought up two bronzed officers in mufti, who made their way direct to the Russian Consulate.
Four of the wounded from the Askold were removed temporarily to the Montcalm and their injuries Arossed. Tu consequence of the near dloparture of the French flagship they were brought up on Saturday to Shanghai and received at the General Hospital. All are badly hurt, though in no immediate danger of succumbing. One poor fellow has lost a leg, another is shot through the arm, another through the breast, while the fourth has nasty gashes about the head. It is expected that some sixteen more men, not wounded but suffering from sickness, will be sent to the hospital, as it is very difficult to gi them proper treatment on board their boat.
In regard to the Grosovoi, the torpedo-boat destroyer which came up river on Friday afternoon and anchored in the lower reach, the determination wa: reached to disarm her, and let her Li alongside the Mandjour until the war is over. already stated on Saturday she has suffered only from hard work and long exposure to the sea and had sustained no damage at the hands of the Japanese. She was towed up river to the upper reach yesterday evening about six o'clock.
Of the various Japanese and Russian vessels which have been reported by rumour as somewhere in the neigbourhood of the Seddles, there lias been no directly confirmatory information. On Saturday morning it was stated that a Jspanese battleship, two cruisers and four torpedo-boat-destroyers were lying in that vicinity watching for colliers who were expected from ingtao to bring much-needed coal for the Russian vessels which had been headed out from the Ger-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.