lves upon high and rugged kopjes, of which the apparent strength
became a source of weakness. The hills afforded an excellent target
for the British artillery. The riflemen who held the works had to aim
downwards at the enemy as he advanced to the attack, and a "plunging"
fire never yields satisfactory results. At their base was dead ground,
inaccessible to the musketry of the defenders. Here the attacking
infantry, after their rush across the open, could halt for breathing
space before delivering the final assault. For these reasons De la Rey
decided to adopt completely new tactics and to fight from the bed of a
river, surrounded on every side by a level plain, destitute of cover
over the surface of which the burghers could pour a continuous and
"grazing" fire upon the British from the time they first came within
range, up to the very moment of their final charge. The plain, across
which the railway from Orange River to Kimberley runs nearly due north
and south, is intersected by the devious windings of two rivers, the
Riet and the Modder. From Bosman's Drift (see map 12) the Riet, the
more southerly of the two, runs north-west for about a mile and a
half, and then for the same distance turns to the north-east. Its
course next changes abruptly to the north-west for nearly two miles
when, increased in volume by the waters of its affluent, the Modder,
it gently curves to the westward for about a mile and a half. The
meanderings of the Modder are even more remarkable. Its most southern
elbow is half a mile north-east of the spot where the Riet turns for
the second time north-west. Thence it runs for a mile to the north,
then about the same distance to the west; it turns southward for a
mile, and then flows westward for three-quarters of a mile, where, a
few hundred yards above the railway bridge, it merges into the Riet.
Both these streams have cut themselves channels so wide as to allow a
thick growth of trees and scrub to line their sides, so deep that the
vegetation which they contain hardly shows above the level of the
surrounding plain. There are few practicable fords across the Riet.
One exists at Bosman's Drift; there is a second near the railway
bridge; among the group of islets at Rosmead there is a natural ford,
while the retaining wall of the weir which dams the river at this
village can be used, not without difficulty, by active men in single
file. Elsewhere the depth of the water and the mud at the bottom of
t