beyond a foggy speculation.]

_(8.30 A.M.)_--We have marched for about two hours to the top of a
range of hills which surrounds the town; there is firing on the right
and left, and the Infantry are advancing in extended order. Our right
section has just gone into action. A big drove of wild-looking Boer
ponies has come stampeding up to the column with some of our mounted
men vainly trying to corner them.

_(1.30 P.M.)_--The battle is, as usual, unintelligible to the humble
unit, but the force is advancing slowly, the Yorkshire Light Infantry
and Munster Fusiliers on either hand of us. Our section is in action
now. We have just taken our waggon to the firing line and brought back
the team. The corporal's horse stepped in a hole just as we were
reaching the guns and turned a complete somersault. He is all right,
but his was our second mishap, as the near wheeler fell earlier in the
day, and the driver was dragged some yards before we could stop. The
ground is very dangerous, full of holes, some of them deep and
half-covered with grass. Another driver is up, but the former is only
a bit shaken, I think. Our section has silenced a Boer gun in three
shots, at 4200 yards, a good bit of work, and a credit to Lieutenant
Bailey as a judge of range. The right section also cleared the kopje
they fired at, but had a narrow escape afterwards, coming suddenly,
when on the move, under the fire of Boer guns, of whose presence they
were ignorant, the shells falling thick but not bursting. Bivouacked
at four on the veldt. The Boers had retired from the line they held. A
long ride to water after unharnessing; nothing much to eat. Williams
and I have taken to ending the day by boiling tea (from tablets) over
the embers of the cook's fire, or on one of our own if we have any
fuel, which is very seldom. How the cooks get their wood is a mystery