It is very fine,
though gaunt, bare, and untenanted. We have had nothing but level veldt
to march on for weeks past, and the change to the eye is a pleasant one.
Nevertheless, it is a bad country for our business. To us mountain
ranges are not fine scenery, but strong positions; and rocks and crags
are not grand and picturesque, but merely good cover. We always serve
out extra-ammunition when we come to a pretty bit of scenery.
The present position is this: We have got the Boers, a big lot of them,
at any rate, into a very broken and mountainous country, a country
which, though it suits their tactics and is strong for defence, is
nevertheless very difficult to get out of. The way south is barred by
the Basutoland border. They dare not cross that or they would have the
hordes of Basutos, who are already buzzing and humming like a
half-roused hive, on to them. The other passes Hunter occupies in this
way: Rundle comes up from the south-west to Fouriesberg through Commando
Nek. Paget and Clements march south towards the same point through
Slabbert's Nek. A little farther east Hunter himself forces Retiefs
Nek, while farther east still Bruce-Hamilton, helped by Macdonald, is to
hold Naawpoort Nek and block the Golden Gate road. The western columns,
_i.e._ Rundle's, Clement's, Paget's, and Hunter's, are to force a
simultaneous entrance into the Fouriesberg valley, and having got the
enemy's force jammed against the Basuto border, to force it to turn
eastward up the rugged Caledon valley, the only two exits to which are,
we hope, by this time held by Bruce-Hamilton and Macdonald.
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