FILLING THE WAR BALLOON.
Here again, as at Modder River, as the sun rose higher and higher and the heat grew intense, the men suffered agonies of thirst. The water bottles had long since been emptied. "The troops," wrote a Black Watch private, "were dying for want of food and water. The sun had risen about eight o'clock, and we lay there getting our legs burned and blistered—frightened to move, as the bullets were flying all around." Great, however, as were the torments of the whole and uninjured, even more terrible were those of the wounded lying out at the very front, close to the Boer trenches, and far beyond the reach of aid from the stretcher companies and ambulances. Yet the restraint of the stricken men was wonderful. The wounded, says Mr. Ralph, did not writhe or groan. Only one or two dying men cried for the doctor or begged to be killed. Others exclaimed in a low voice, "Oh, dear, dear, dear!" All wanted water and cigarettes. They accepted their lot with a sad and noble resignation. Many had been hit with expanding bullets, which, in defiance of the conventions of war, the Boers only too often employed. These described the sensation thus: "You feel," they said, "exactly as if you had received a powerful shock from an electric battery, and then comes a blow as if your foot (or arm, or whatever part it might be), was crushed by a tremendous mallet." The Mauser bullets, where they did not hit the bone, merely produced a stinging, burning sensation.
[Dec. 11, 1899.
Heroism on the field.
Many gallant efforts were made by the medical officers and others to succour the wounded. Lieutenant Douglas, of the Black Watch, under a tremendous fire, advanced and attended to Captain Gordon, who was badly wounded, and to others of the Gordons. Band-Sergeant Hoare, of the Seaforths, was equally conspicuous for his coolness and daring. He, unaided, carried a wounded officer on his back 800 yards to the rear. Here, as elsewhere, the stretcher bearers distinguished themselves by their calm disregard of death. Among the many noble deeds of this terrible day, that of Major Lambton, of the Coldstreams, deserves to be recorded. He refused to allow the bearers to carry him, when wounded, off the field, because this would have drawn upon them a heavy fire and would have imperilled their lives. In consequence, he was left upon the ground thirty-seven hours without food or water.
TRENCHES AT MAGERSFONTEIN.
Protest against Lord Methuen's orders.
From which the Highland Brigade were shot down. From a photograph taken after their evacuation by the Boers.
