nd estuary, maintained continual uproar.
Darkness began to gather. Fighting continued into the night, and early
next morning was renewed. But the defenders seemed to lack enthusiasm.
It is doubtful, indeed, whether their forces were sufficiently numerous
to hold with strength their advanced positions, and at the same time to
man adequately their main fortified positions. During the morning of the
28th the Germans withdrew from Prince Heinrich Hill, leaving fifty of
their number and four machine-guns in Japanese hands, and many dead upon
the slopes. The Japanese casualties numbered 150. By noon the whole
position was in the attackers' hands, and the beleaguered town, visible
from the height, was now face to face with siege. German officers who
knew all the points, weak and strong, of the defences, could not but
realize their inability to withstand the siege guns which Japan would
sooner or later bring to the attack. But the heavy artillery was yet far
away. A month was to elapse before the pieces could be dragged across
the difficult country, and emplaced in prepared positions on Prince
Heinrich Hill.

[Sidenote: The siege continues.]

[Sidenote: Gunboats sunk.]

This month, which covered the whole of October, saw many interesting
incidents, and betrayed no signs of idleness on the part of besiegers or
besieged. The Germans, indeed, proved extraordinarily prodigal in
ammunition, firing on an average 1,000 to 1,500 shells daily, a fact
which lent support to the current view that, while undesirous of
incurring their emperor's displeasure, they realized the hopelessness,
so far as Tsing-tao was concerned, of their emperor's cause. Warships in
the bay assisted the cannonade from the forts, and Lieutenant von
Pluschow, the airman of the single aeroplane the town possessed,
ventured forth at intervals to reconnoitre or to bomb. Life in the town
itself continued to be quite normal. Japanese and British, meanwhile,
drew their lines closer and closer to the fortress by sap and mine,
though hindered greatly by terrible weather, and occasionally having
slight encounters with the enemy. In one of these, on October 5, a
German night-attack was heavily repulsed, forty-seven dead being left
behind by the attackers. At sea the operations were also spasmodic. At
the end of September a landing force occupied Lao-she harbour, in the
vicinity of Tsing-tao, where four abandoned field-guns were taken
possession of. Mine-sweeping had consta