them through the wire railings. On one occasion a soldier attempting to
take this liberty with an ostrich was turned upon by the indignant bird,
and a struggle ensued which might have proved serious to the man; he
was, however, lucky enough to get a grip on the creature's neck and
succeeded by a great effort in killing it. Ordinarily, however, the
ostriches, despite an occasional surrender of tail feathers, lived on
terms of amity with our men, and at Belmont they were to be seen walking
about the camp and concealing their curiosity under a great show of
dignity. During the fight one of these birds took up its quarters with a
battery, and watched the whole battle without taking any food, except
that on one occasion when a man lit his pipe the bird suddenly reached
out for the box of lucifers and swallowed it with great gusto.

It was curious to notice a variety of chalk marks upon some of the ant
hills on the battle-field. The Boers had carefully measured their ground
beforehand, as we did at Omdurman, and knew exactly how to adjust their
sights as we advanced against their position. The battle of Graspan
consisted, as at Belmont, in a frontal attack upon a line of kopjes held
by a much larger force of the enemy than was present at the earlier
engagement. Lord Methuen succeeded in working his way to the foot of the
kopjes, and a final rush swept the Boers away in headlong flight. His
victory would have been much more complete had the cavalry succeeded in
cutting off the enemy's retreat, but this was not done.

We brought back a load of wounded men from this fight. The corps which
suffered most heavily was the naval brigade, composed of 200 marines and
50 bluejackets. It is worth mentioning the numbers here, because I have
seen several accounts of this fight in which the gallantry of the
"bluejackets" is spoken of in the warmest terms with absolutely no
mention of the marines. Correspondents, some of them without any