ggling against bars.

CHAPTER 37. THE CAMPAIGN OF JANUARY TO APRIL, 1902.

At the opening of the year 1902 it was evident to every observer that
the Boer resistance, spirited as it was, must be nearing its close. By
a long succession of captures their forces were much reduced in numbers.
They were isolated from the world, and had no means save precarious
smuggling of renewing their supplies of ammunition. It was known
also that their mobility, which had been their great strength, was
decreasing, and that in spite of their admirable horsemastership their
supply of remounts was becoming exhausted. An increasing number of the
burghers were volunteering for service against their own people, and it
was found that all fears as to this delicate experiment were misplaced,
and that in the whole army there were no keener and more loyal soldiers.

The chief factor, however, in bringing the Boers to their knees was the
elaborate and wonderful blockhouse system, which had been strung across
the whole of the enemy's country. The original blockhouses had been far
apart, and were a hindrance and an annoyance rather than an absolute
barrier to the burghers. The new models, however, were only six hundred
yards apart, and were connected by such impenetrable strands of wire
that a Boer pithily described it by saying that if one's hat blew over
the line anywhere between Ermelo and Standerton one had to walk round
Ermelo to fetch it. Use was made of such barriers by the Spaniards in
Cuba, but an application of them on such a scale over such an enormous
tract of country is one of the curiosities of warfare, and will remain
one of several novelties which will make the South African campaign for
ever interesting to students of military history.

The spines of this great system were always the railway lines, which
were guarded on either side, and down which, as down a road, went
flocks, herds, pedestrians, and everything which wished to travel in
safety. From these long central cords the lines branched out to right
and left, cutting up the great country into manageable districts. A
category of them would but weary the reader, but suffice it that by the
beginning of the year the south-east of the Transvaal and the north-east
of the Orange River Colony, the haunts of Botha and De Wet, had been
so intersected that it was obvious that the situation must soon be
impossible for both of them. Only on the west of the Transvaal was there
a clear r