, ever a
leading object in defensive warfare. Consequently, in the {p.021}
present hostilities they have helped the Boers. It may be added that
their influence is most felt when the armies are face to face, or at
least in touch. Hence their existence near the scene of probable
conflict, as in Natal, is a matter of more concern to the invader than
when, as upon the Cape extreme of the scene of war, they are found
beyond the range to which the defendant can safely extend his
operations.

These successive watercourses indicate natural lines of defence,
stronger or weaker according to their individual distinctive features.
As the railroad, in its progress north, draws near the mountains in
the neck of Natal, the streams show smaller volume and less developed
channels. This comes from their having there a shorter course and
descending from heights which, though still considerable, are
decidedly lower. But, while the streams become less conspicuous as
obstacles, the ground toward the northward frontier is more broken and
irregular, presenting numerous scattered hills, sometimes isolated,
sometimes in small ranges or groups, which to a trained military skill
afford positions too {p.022} threatening to be disregarded, and yet
which cannot be carried without heavy loss. This characteristic is
observable in the neighbourhood of Glencoe, Dundee, and Ladysmith,
and, as will be seen, exercised a determinative influence upon the
fighting.

In the extreme north a similar condition is emphasized conspicuously
at Majuba Hill and the surrounding country, which, however, and
perhaps for that very reason, seem unlikely to play much of a part in
the war now current.

Before proceeding to the narrative of the hostilities which, so far as
events of decisive interest are concerned, began in Natal, it is
desirable to note one broad topographical feature distinguishing the
region to which, in its eastern development, the war has been
confined. From the capital, Pietermaritzburg, the railroad ascends
rapidly, so that in twenty-five miles it has risen from 2,200 to 4,800
feet, after which it begins again to go down, till fifty miles
further, at Estcourt--the most southern of the stations prominently
named in the narratives of the war--the elevation is 3,800 feet.
Thence, till near Glencoe and Dundee, {p.023} there is an extensive
area of comparative depression, rarely itself higher than 3,500 feet,
but on the western side skirted by the preci