is usual in South Africa, was thickly spotted over with great ant-hills,
beneath which the ant-eater digs his den. Ant-heaps, hardened almost to
brick, make excellent cover, and we lay down behind them on any bit of
rock we could find, the fire being very hot, and the Mauser bullets
making their unpleasant whiffle as they passed. I think the first man
hit was a private, who got a ball through his head by the ear. He was
carried away, but died before he got off the field. A young officer was
struck soon afterwards, and then the bearers began to be busy. There
were far too few of them, and no one could find the ambulance carts. As
a matter of fact they had not left Ladysmith--twelve miles at least
away. Most of the wounded tried to creep back out of fire. Some lay
quite still. I heard only two or three call out for help. Meantime the
rest were keeping up a steady fire, not by volleys, but as each could
sight a Boer among the rocks, and my own belief is that very few Boers
were hit that way.

Climbing up a heap of loose stones a little to the right of the Devons,
I could now see the Boers at the top of their position in the centre,
moving about rapidly, taking cover, resting their rifles on the stones,
and firing both at us and at the men who were pushing up the slope
threatening their flank. Meantime the artillery pumped iron and lead
upon them without mercy. Their own guns were quite silenced about this
time, being unable to stand the combined shell and rifle fire. But the
ordinary Boers--the armed and mounted peasants--still clung to their
rocks as though nothing could drive them out.

One big man in black I watched for what seemed a very long time. He was
standing right against the sky line, sometimes waving his arm,
apparently to give directions. Shells burst over his head, and bullets
must have been thick round him. Once or twice he fell, as though