ing what a land battle was like.

Naturally, I volunteered my services in any capacity where I could be
made useful, and the general eagerly closed with my offer. He was
particularly anxious to obtain the exact range of certain of the Russian
positions without being obliged to fire any trial shots, and he asked me
if I could do this for him, seeing that I had already done similar work
quite recently; and I told him that I could, and would, with pleasure,
if such a thing as a box sextant or an azimuth compass was to be found
in camp. Somewhat to my surprise it turned out, upon inquiry, that no
such things were to be had. I therefore had recourse to what is known
among engineers as a "plane table," which I was obliged to extemporise;
and with this apparatus, used in conjunction with a carefully measured
line, three hundred yards in length, I was soon able to supply the
information required. The whole device was, of course, of a very
rough-and-ready description, but I was greatly gratified when the first
shots were fired, to see the shells drop upon the exact spots aimed at.

The task which General Oku had undertaken, and which he must accomplish
before an advance could be made by him upon Port Arthur, was an
exceedingly difficult one. As has already been said, he effected a
landing at a point near Yentoa Bay, distant some sixty miles north-east
of Port Arthur as the crow flies. From thence he must needs make his
way to Port Arthur overland, since there was no such thing for him as
getting there by sea. About half-way on his journey occurred the
isthmus of Kinchau, which is only about two miles wide, and which he
must traverse on his way. A neck of land two miles wide is no great
matter to fortify, a fact which the Russians speedily demonstrated. To
march along such a narrow strip of land, with sixteen thousand resolute
armed men saying you Nay, would be difficult enough, in all conscience,
were that strip of land level; but unhappily for the Japanese it was not
so, the Nanshan Heights running through it from north to south, like a
raised backbone, leaving only a very narrow strip of low ground on
either side of it. Nor was this the only difficulty which the Japanese
had to contend with, for, some three miles north-east of the narrowest
part of the isthmus, towered Mount Sampson, over two thousand feet in
height, commanding the entire neighbourhood and affording an ideal
position for the Russian batteries. Then,