GENERAL SKOBELEFF.

Auckland Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2403, 1 December 1877, Page 7

GENERAL SKOBELEFF.

General Skobeleff, who has played so distinguished a part in the Russian army before Plevna, is one of the youngest generals in the service of the Czar. In person he is quite the beau sabreur, tall, anclhancleome, with clear blue eyes, and a large, well-shaped nose, and a compact, supple, and remarkably active frame ; just the sort ofsaan, in fact, whom, if you met m an English hunting field, you would take for anoflacerinoneof the crack cavalry regiments who would ride straight to the hounds, and lead a forlorn hope with equal courage and coolness. His father who is Sr from being an aged man, is also with ti&aJmy U the Danube, where Ize comm^Js an independent division of Cossacks ; but fit al the celebrity of General fenaSto thrown into ***£** ™£* of Genera! Ignatiefr pere, so has it begs

with the younger Skobelcff, who is so like his father in person that the two might very well be taken for brothers. The intrepid general who seized the three redoubts on the Sophia-road, won hia spurs in Central Asia as the conqueror of Khokand, of which province he was afterwards appointed Governor, when the Russians bestowed upon it the name of Perghana. An exploit which he performed in that country was so daring as to be worth narrating, while it will also serve to illustrate the intrepidity and tenacity of theman. When the five columns marched on Khiva, one of them was compelled to turn back in the middle of a waterless desert, and narrowly escaped destruction. General Kaulfmann, the officer in supreme command at Khiva, was very anxious to know whether MarkosofF, who led the missing column, could reach the city by that route. As the country was overrun with fugitive Turkomans, the achievement was a very difficultone. But Skoheleif was equal to the emergency. Disguising himself as a Turkoman, and accompanied by three friendly natives, he set out and reached the spot where Markosoff had turned back, explored the route, marked the position, and measured the depth and capacity of the wells on the road, and returned to Khiva in safety, after 10 days' absence, almost exhausted by the arduous nature of his exploit. Evidently there is some stuff" in thi3 junior General Skobeleff.