who set off on the morning of the 24th, with so little hope
of overtaking the retreat that he chose the only route by which it was
impossible for him to do so, the main road west of the railway.
Nevertheless, on the evening of the 25th, Erasmus' bivouac was near
Elandslaagte, and the wisdom of Sir G. White's order for the instant
continuance of the march of the column on that afternoon was
manifested. Had that march not been executed, Yule, the action of
Rietfontein notwithstanding, would have had the vanguard of Joubert's
army upon his flank next day, when only operations from Ladysmith on
the largest scale could have extricated him.

[Footnote 104: C. de Wet, "Three Years' War."]

[Sidenote: The Rietfontein position.]

Some seven miles north-east of Ladysmith, Rietfontein[105] farmhouse
lay by a branch of the Modder Spruit, south-west of a long, low ridge,
which descended to the railway line in smooth and easy slopes dotted
with ant-heaps, with on its forehead a sparse eyebrow of stones.
Beyond the crest line, to the northward, the ground sank with a gentle
sweep, broken only by two rough under-features jutting from the
western extremity of the ridge, to rear itself again eight hundred
yards beyond into a line of abrupt heights. The southernmost of these,
called Intintanyoni,[106] leaped up steeply from the hollow, and
beyond and behind it stretched many leagues of rolling ground, with
scarce a subsidence until they merged in the tumultuous billows of the
Drakensberg. Two grassy pinnacles, nearly equal in height, flanked
Intintanyoni. Of these the western looked across a deep and narrow
gorge over to Nodashwana or Swaatbouys Kop, of a somewhat greater
elevation, whilst below the eastern, deep re-entrants, both on the
north and south, divided Intintanyoni from the magnificent curve of
highlands, which terminated west of Elandslaagte in the wooded mass of
Jonono's Kop.[107]

[Footnote 105: See map No. 7.]

[Footnote 106: Also called Tintwa Inyoni.]

[Footnote 107: A freehand sketch of the position from
Nodashwana to Jonono's Kop will be found in the case of maps
accompanying this volume. Jonono's Kop is not shown in the
plan of Rietfontein, no part of the battle having been near
it.]

[Sidenote: The Boer occupation of it.]

East of the twin peaks of Intintanyoni various lesser eminences and
hollow Neks completed the tempestuous irregulari