had previously thought. We had
to wait here till the 8th November, when we finally bid farewell to
South Africa which with every beat of the screw gradually faded from
view into the dim shadows of an interesting past.

While the revolving wheel of life bears one on to other scenes and
toils, with dear old England looming once more on the horizon, we
leave South Africa behind with the problem of the war still unsettled,
and with desultory but fierce fighting still going on. But let us hope
that the shadows will lift, and that the glory of a rising sun will
eventually dim and absorb the sea of blood which has submerged that
wonderful and hitherto unfortunate land. The lines from the "Light of
Asia"--

"Om Mani padme Hun, The sunrise comes,
The dew-drop slips into the shining sea"--

express, I think, the hope of every British heart for South Africa, as
they do that of my own.

CHAPTER IX

Gunnery Results: The 12-pounder Q.-F. Naval gun -- Its mounting,
sighting, and methods of firing -- The Creusot 3" gun and its
improvements -- Shrapnel fire and the poor results obtained by
the Boers -- Use of the Clinometer and Mekometer -- How to
emplace a Q.-F. gun, etc., etc.

A word or two now as to what we with the guns have learnt during the
campaign, although I feel that this may be rather a dull, professional
sort of chapter except to those interested in guns and gunnery, and
that the subject as treated by myself may be open to criticism from
others similarly engaged. I may certainly say that it was not for at
least three months after our opening fire at the first battle of
Colenso (December 15th, 1899) that I personally felt myself as "fairly
well up" to the constantly varying conditions of gun positions, gun
platforms, enemy's positions, and the ever-changing "light and shade"
of the South African climate, against all of which one had to fight to
get correct shooting; the last-named of these, viz., "light and
shade," being perhaps our greatest bugbear, often throwing one many
thousand yards out in judging a range by eye, which gift is, I think,
the best a gunner can possess!

Then, too, the Naval guns as they were sent up (owing to the work
being pushed at the last moment), some on high wheels and some on low
ones, some with drag-shoes opened out and others which wouldn't take
the wheels, some with the wires from them to trail plate handles the
right length and ot