ttle
workmen's houses. Here and there were open spaces and even green
fields, but nowhere could a continuous field of fire be obtained. The
only thing was to select various _points d'appui_ with some sort of
command, and try and connect them up by patches of entrenchments; but
even this was very difficult, as the line was so long and broken that
no unity of command was possible, and the different patches were so
separated and so uneven, some having to be in front of the general
line and some in rear, that they often could not flank or even see
each other.

At about midday several cyclists came riding back in a great hurry
from the Canal, saying they had been attacked by a big force of
cavalry and been badly cut up; that they had lost all their officers
and 20 or 30 men killed, and the rest taken prisoners. This was hardly
a good beginning, but it eventually turned out that the grand total
losses were 1 officer (Corah of the Bedfords) slightly wounded, 2 men
killed, and 3 missing.

Shortly after this the first German gun was heard--at 12.40 P.M. I
timed it--and for the rest of the afternoon there was intermittent
bombardment and numerous shell-bursts in the direction of the Canal,
some of it our own Horse Artillery, but mostly German.

When we had roughly settled on our line, I shouted to a crowd of
curious natives who had come out to watch us, and did not seem
particularly friendly--as they were not at all sure that we were not
Germans--to get all their friends together with pickaxes and shovels
and start digging entrenchments where we showed them. It was Sunday
afternoon, and all the miners were loafing about with nothing to do.
The idea rapidly caught on, and soon they were hurrying off home for
their tools, whilst we got hold of the best-dressed and most
authoritative-looking men and showed them what we wanted done. It was
scratch work, in more senses than one, as we had no time to lose and
could not superintend, but had to tear from one point to another,
raising men and showing them where the lines were to go, how deep the
trenches were to be made, which way the earth was to be thrown, and
all the rest of it.

On our way round we came also upon some batteries of field artillery,
disconsolately wending their way through the narrow streets, and with
their reconnoitring officers out in all directions looking for
positions; but they found none, and the Artillery did but little in
the way of shooting that night. Wi