.-F. gun }
(wire) 7 tons 8 cwt. } Boer 6" Creusot gun,
British Naval 4.7 Q.-F. } 2 tons 10 cwt.
wire gun 2 tons 2 cwt. }

From these weights it may be at once noticed that inch for inch there
is no comparison between the Boer and British heavy gun as regards
range and power of gun itself, consequent on our heavier charges.
Taking their 3-1/2" Creusot Q.-F. guns (15 lbs.) and comparing them
with our Elswick Naval 12-pounders I should say that there is little
to choose between them, they having the advantage only in their long
range fuses for shrapnel shell, which fuses should be issued to ours
as soon as possible. One always heard these small French Q.-F. guns
alluded to with great awe as the "high velocity" gun of the enemy, but
I doubt much if they have one foot per second more mean velocity at
ordinary ranges than our Naval 12-pounder, although perhaps they may
have more at the muzzle, which is of little account.

To illustrate what small use the Boer gunner made of his advantage
over us in long range shrapnel, I should say that it was generally
noticed by all in the Natal Field Force how very high up they burst
their shell as a rule, and so doing much less damage than they might
have done; as Tommy described it, the bullets often came down like a
gentle shower of rain and could be caught in the hand and pocketed.
This of course, I should say, was the result of faulty setting of
their time fuse; probably they did not apply the necessary correction
for height above sea-level and so the shell either burst at too high a
period of its flight, or else on striking did little damage to us. The
front face of this kopje from where I am now writing (Grass Kop at
Sandspruit, and 6,000 feet high) is full of holes made by Boer
shrapnel shell, burst after striking in the hole dug by the shell
itself and leaving all their bullets and pieces buried in these holes.
There was no damage done by their heavy shrapnel fire at all when the
Dorsets took the hill, and solely because of this faulty setting of
the time fuse. We have dug up many of these shells here, and bullets
simply strew the ground.

The 12-pounder gun limber, especially made by our Ordnance people from
a design supplied by Lieutenant James, R.N., when at Maritzburg in
November, was afterwards supplied to all the guns, and none too soon;
but we did not get them till Ladysmith was relieved and t