cision. Thus, after a little
while, every battery on the heights became in turn the focus of a
terrific crossfire from the ships and the field batteries, the effect of
which soon became manifest in the silencing of several of the Russian
guns, either by dismounting, or, as we afterwards discovered, by the
complete destruction of the men working them.

With the guns of our fleet playing such havoc among the ten forts which
crowned the heights, it now became possible for our field artillery to
turn its attention upon the trenches, tier after tier of which lined the
eastern slope of the heights, up which our stormers would have to pass.
Those trenches were quite formidable works, roofed over with timber and
earth to protect the occupants from artillery fire, and loopholed for
rifle-fire; yet, thanks again to my labours of the previous day in
determining the exact range of them, our guns were able to search them
from end to end, blowing the parapets to dust and matchwood, and hurling
the wreckage among the gunners who were working the Russian quick-firers
and machine-guns, many of whom were thus killed or wounded. The carnage
must have been--indeed was, as we later saw for ourselves--frightful,
yet the Russians maintained a most gallant defence, and clung to their
trenches with unflinching determination. A lucky shell from one of our
field-guns fell upon and exploded one of the many Russian mines which
were scattered pretty thickly over the hillside, and the explosion blew
a big gap in one of the lines of wire entanglements, a circumstance
which without doubt resulted subsequently in the saving of many lives.

Hour after hour the artillery duel proceeded, our gunners doing their
utmost to cover the slow advance of the stormers, while the Russian
artillery systematically swept with a crossfire every inch of the ground
which our men would have to traverse. The crash of the artillery was
continuous and most distracting, and the effect was intensified by the
incessant scream of the shells and the sharp thud as they burst,
interspersed with the everlasting hammering of the machine-guns and
quick-firers; Nanshan was ablaze with the fire of the Russian guns and
the bursting of our shells, and the entire hill was enwrapped in
fantastically whirling wreaths of smoke which were every moment rent
violently asunder by the explosion of bursting shells.

Thus far I had occupied my position undisturbed, but about mid-morning
certain