ier Field Force went out to make a
reconnaissance round one shoulder of Bulwaan. They got up through the
wooded neck, had a look into the Boer position but saw not an enemy, and
got back without having a shot fired at them until they showed in the
plain again. Then ping! ping! came the Mauser bullets, and a "Pom-Pom"
opened on them. Colonel Knox gave an order for his men to form loose
order and gallop, and thus they got out of danger with not a man hit.

_January 24._--All day long I have watched from Observation Buller's
batteries shelling the whole range of Intaba Mnyama from the peaked
"paps" or "sisters," past the Kloof north-west of them, and along the
more commanding Hog's Back. The Boers call part of this range Spion Kop,
and that name has been adopted by our Intelligence Staff as presenting
less difficulties of orthography than the Zulu designation. So Spion Kop
it must be henceforth. From a laager behind one peak I saw an ambulance
cart with its Red Cross flag go up to the crest, which seemed a
dangerous place for it, especially as a piece of light artillery opened
beside the cart a moment later. I could see needles of light flashing
out like electric sparks, only redder, but could hear no report. Nothing
but a "Pom-Pom" could have made those quivering flashes, yet how it got
there with an ambulance cart beside it I must leave the Boers to
explain. The shelling of heights with Lyddite and shrapnel went on hour
after hour, and towards evening some thought they heard a faint sound
as of rifle volleys. The Boers came hurrying down in groups from Spion
Kop's crest, their waggons were trekking from laagers across the plain
towards Van Reenan's, and men could be seen rounding up cattle as if for
a general rearward movement. To us watching it seemed as if the Boers
were beaten and knew it.

_January 25._--The Boer trek continued for several hours this morning
and well on into the afternoon, when it slackened. Then we saw some
horsemen turn back to make for the cleft ridge of Doorn Kloof, where one
of the big Creusots had opened fire, Buller's naval guns or howitzers
replying with Lyddite shells. The roar of our field-guns has died away
instead of drawing nearer, and we look in vain for any sign of British
cavalry on the broad plain, where they should be by now if Sir Redvers
Buller's infantry attack had succeeded.

_January 26._--The Boers are back in their former laagers. There is no
sound of fighting this side of