Excerpts from Atherton's Russian Novels

Fort Ross

The fort was surrounded by a stockade of redwood beams, bastions in the shape of hexagonal towers at diagonal corners. Cannon, mounted on carriages, were at each of the four entrances, in the middle of the enclosure, and in the bastions. Sentries paced the ramparts with unremitting vigilance.

Within were the long row buildings occupied by the governor and officers, the barracks, and the Russian church, with its belfry and cupola. Beyond was the town, a collection of huts accommodating about eight hundred Indians and Siberian convicts, the workingmen of the company. All the buildings were of redwood logs or planed boards and made a very different picture from the white [Spanish adobe] towns of the South. The curving mountains were sombrous with redwoods, the ocean growled unceasingly.