t 300
yards north of the station.

Just before we crossed the river we saw the two war-balloons floating
above the camp, and our cook informed us with a great show of expert
knowledge that these balloons were absolutely proof against bullets or
even shells, "for," said he, "if anything hits them it rebounds from
them like my fist does from this 'ere pillow". A rather similar story
was told me by a wounded Highlander. He declared that a pal of his had
been struck in the stomach by a shell at the Modder River fight. "Oh,"
said I, "there wasn't much of your poor friend left, I suppose?" "He
wasn't much hurt," was the reply, "though he did spit blood for a few
hours." "Great Scot! what became of the shell?" "Oh," said my informant,
"I didn't notice, but it must have bounced off Bill's stomach." The
soldier quite believed that this marvellous incident had occurred. What
had happened was probably this: a shell had passed so close to the man
that the concussion of the air had "taken his wind" and ruptured some
small blood-vessels. I remember at the capture of Malaxa in Crete that
three insurgents were hurled to the ground by the air pressure of a
Turkish shell which passed within a yard or two of their heads.

Several of our cases on this downward journey were interesting. Corporal
Anderson of the Black Watch lay in our ward, struck deaf and dumb from
the bursting of a Boer shell, though he was otherwise uninjured by the
explosion. Wounds through the intestines were to be found here and
there. Such injuries in the larger intestines, if left to themselves and
not operated on, have--when inflicted by the humane Mauser bullet--a
fairly good chance, and that is all that can be said. One man had been
shot through the elbow as he lay at the "present". The bullet had
shattered the bone, but there was every prospect of the arm being saved.
How different would have been the probable effects, in such a case, of
the big Martini bullet!

One incident which seemed to amuse the men very much was this. During
the Modder River battle a bullet struck a corporal on the back; it
glanced superficially across his shoulder and then piercing his
canteen-tin remained inside. The corporal, imagining himself _in
extremis_, fell to the ground and called for the ambulance. Somebody ran
up to the prostrate man, and after a diligent but fruitless search for
the wound at length discovered the bullet in the canteen-tin. The
apparently moribund corporal, s