fantry operation began as
quickly as possible. The front attack moved down into the valley, a
firing line of three hundred men covering the space of 500 yards from
end to end, its remaining companies following at intervals to support
it, and to replace those who fell--to "feed" the line, keeping it at
full strength.

The first part of this advance was, on account of the distance,
resisted chiefly by artillery fire, which, though accurate, was seen
to cause there few casualties. At 1,200 yards from the enemy's
positions, being there well within rifle range, the line halted, lay
down, and opened fire. The smooth surface of the ground gave little
natural shelter; what {p.053} there was was found chiefly behind ant
hills, of which there were very many. The musketry fire here undergone
was severe, for the only diversion to it continued so far to be the
British artillery, the flanking movement not having yet fully
developed. Under the undivided attention of the enemy's riflemen, the
line worked its way steadily forward, men dropping frequently, to
within 800 yards of the summit, where they finally lay down and waited
under a constant fall of shot till the bugle should summon them to the
storm.

Meantime, during these last 400 yards, the flank attack was beginning.
In general, the first ascent was of the rocky, broken character before
noted, both here and at Talana; but, the strength of the Boer force
being on the other flank, the assailants, while mounting, were covered
by the slope and did not come fairly under fire until the top was
reached. Then they began to fall rapidly, but a few paces further the
ground dipped, and again gave momentary shelter. It was, however, but
to take breath for the final rush; if rush it can be called, which
meant steady, dogged bearing up against a pitiless rain {p.054} of
projectiles, and forcing one's way forward rock by rock, while
companions drop, one by one, on either side. Six hundred yards of such
work lay, before the flanking column, interrupted ever and anon by the
barbed-wire obstacles, which, however, were themselves often cut down
by the intensity of the fire.

Under such conditions the community of action which rests upon formal
organisation and method ceases to be effectual. The momentum that
endures to the end, and so effects the results of co-operation, finds
its energy partly in individual character, partly in the moral
fellowship of impulse and of purpose which, once impart