The charge is of "smokeless powder" (hornified nitro-cellulose).
LEE-ENFIELD CARTRIDGE.
Charged with cordite (nitro-glycerine and guncotton).
DIAGRAM SHOWING THE "RIFLING" OF A LEE-ENFIELD RIFLE.
The spiral grooves cause the bullet to rotate rapidly on leaving the barrel. The twist of the rifling in a Mauser runs the opposite way; this latter weapon weighs nearly ¾ lb. less than the British (Lee-Enfield) pattern, and the bullet leaves the muzzle at a velocity of 2,034 feet per second as against 2,000 feet, the speed in the case of the Lee-Enfield.
[Nov. 23, 1899.
The moral effect upon the Boers was, in fact, considerable, though not, perhaps, so great as the British staff at the time supposed. A prisoner told the British soldiers that the Boers believed in their ability to hold their position against all the armies of the world. They had expected the arrival of General Cronje with four or five thousand Transvaalers from Mafeking, and were greatly incensed at his failure to put in an appearance. Official Boer accounts stated that twelve Boers only were killed and forty wounded.
After its baptism in blood the British division marched back to camp, leaving behind it the battlefield over which the great vultures were already wheeling slowly, having gathered swiftly and strangely from all quarters. In camp Lord Methuen delivered to it a brief, soldierly, and sympathetic address:—