Almost 1,000 yards from the line of kopjes three lines of wire had been
placed, which were cut during our advance, and other entanglements were
stretched just in front of the trenches. Several men in each company
carried wire-cutters with them, but to stand up and snip through lines
of barbed wire when the Mauser bullets and the deadly shells of the
Pom-Pom gun are tearing up the soil around is perilous work. Some of
these entanglements had already been removed after the bombardment on
Sunday night, for E Company of the Black Watch and a company of the
Seaforths went forward about 7 P.M. in skirmishing order and pulled up
the iron stakes and knocked over three parallel lines of barbed wire.

Some of the Highland Brigade very sensibly withdrew towards the right of
the Boer position with the idea of outflanking and enfilading the enemy.
They succeeded for some time and actually captured some prisoners, but
were soon afterwards themselves enfiladed and compelled to retire. Eight
men of the Seaforths, however, when the frontal attack failed, retired
towards the left instead of the right and suddenly found themselves, to
their dismay, well inside the enemy's trenches! The Boers took away
their rifles but forgot their side-arms, whereupon one of the
Highlanders drew his bayonet, leapt to his feet and stabbed the sentry
who was guarding them in the neck. The whole eight then jumped over the
earthwork and decamped, escaping unhurt through the bullets which
followed them from the enraged burghers.

Many of our wounded lay on the ground from early morning till seven or
eight in the evening, exposed all day to the scorching rays of an almost
tropical sun. Some of the men brought away in the ambulances were, in
fact, suffering from sunstroke, in addition to their wounds, and, as was
said above, the bare legs of the three kilted battalions were terribly