a town of over a thousand dwellings, as well as two large
theatres, two temples, and a number of banks and inns. The population
at the time of the Japanese incursion was about 5000 or 6000, in
addition to a garrison of about 7000. The port is very spacious and
commodious, and dredgers have worked assiduously for several years
past to deepen the entrance to it. The bar has been deepened from
twelve feet to about twenty-five feet to enable permanent moorings to
be laid down for men-of-war. The dock basin, called the East Port,
covering an area of thirty-two acres, has been constructed well behind
the signal bluffs to the right of the entrance, the West Port, or
natural harbour, opening just opposite round the long, narrow spit of
land called the Tiger's Tail. The basin has a depth of twenty-five
feet at low water. There are large and numerous wharves and quays,
fitted with steam cranes, and connected by a railway with the
workshops, which contain all the most modern machinery and engines.
The dockyard, and in fact a considerable portion of the town, is
supplied with fresh water conveyed by pipes from a spring about four
miles to the north. There is a smaller dock for torpedo boats, and a
torpedo depot on shore where those weapons can be tested and
regulated. The entrance to the port is defended by torpedoes and
submarine mines, although, as I noticed, some of the latter had been
so badly constructed and adjusted for depth as to show above water.

For defensive purposes nature and art have combined to render the
place exceedingly strong. Ranges of hills, varying from 300 feet to
1500 feet, surround the port and town almost completely, offering
scope for fortification of the most formidable character, advantages
which, as far as construction goes, have been well utilized, massive
and lofty stone forts occupying every point of advantage. I believe
they are of German construction. They bristle with heavy Krupp and
Nordenfeldt guns. The elevation on the coast varies from eighty feet
to 410 feet. The land defences, though newer than those seaward, are
less powerful; the heaviest guns, of 21 and 24 centimetre, are in the
latter. Everywhere the forts are supplemented by trenches, rifle-pits,
and open redoubts or walled camps.

Such is, or was, Port Arthur, and when we remember how the Turks held
Plevna, an open town until the earthworks were hastily thrown up round
it, for months against all the force Russia could bring against