ar such a successful shell, and on that occasion I was
studying the effect from the other side.

My respect for modern artillery was mightily increased by this example
of its power. Two more shells followed in quick succession. The first
struck down four men, and broke in two the leg of an Infantry officer's
charger, so that the poor beast galloped about in a circle, preventing
his rider from dismounting for some time; the second shore along the
Howitzer Battery, killing one soldier and wounding an officer, five
soldiers, and three horses. All this occurred in a space of about two
minutes, and the three shells between them accounted for nineteen men
and four horses. Then the gun, which was firing 'on spec,' and could not
see the effect of its fire, turned its attention elsewhere; but the
thought forced itself on me, 'Fancy if there had been a battery.' The
crowded Infantry waiting in support would certainly have been driven out
of the re-entrant with frightful slaughter. Yet in a European war there
would have been not one, but three or four batteries. I do not see how
troops can be handled in masses under such conditions, even when in
support and on reverse slopes. Future warfare must depend on the
individual.

We climbed on to the top of the kopje, which was sprinkled with staff
officers and others--all much interested in the exhibition of shell
fire, which they discussed as a purely scientific question. Inniskilling
Hill was still crowned with the enemy, though they no longer showed
above their trenches. Its slopes were scored with numerous brown lines,
the stone walls built by the attacking brigade during the night, and
behind these the telescope showed the Infantry clustering thickly. The
Boers on their part had made some new trenches in advance of those on
the crest of the hill, so that the opposing firing lines were scarcely
three hundred yards apart, which meant that everyone in them must lie
still or run grave risks. Thus they remained all day, firing at each
other continually, while on the bare ground between them the dead and
wounded lay thickly scattered, the dead mixed with the living, the
wounded untended, without dressings, food, or water, and harassed by the
fire from both sides and from our artillery. It was a very painful thing
to watch these poor fellows moving about feebly and trying to wriggle
themselves into some position of safety, and it reminded me of the
wounded Dervishes after Omdurman--only t