TRANSVAAL COINS.
The illustration shows the reverse side of some of the Transvaal coins. The head of President Kruger (as below) appears on the obverse of each. An artificial value attaches to some of them on account of the very limited number issued.
OBVERSE OF A TRANSVAAL CROWN-PIECE.
POTGIETER'S DRIFT: BRITISH FORCES CROSSING.
Jan. 11, 1900] A Frontal Assault Inevitable.
The hill pitched precipitously down, with an occasional shelf or terrace, 700 feet into the Tugela below. The river ran, a brown streak of muddy water, flecked with foam, betwixt high rocky banks, through a valley of enchanting beauty. It curved and doubled back upon itself in the most sinuous fashion; from under Spearman's Hill two tongues of land projected northward fenced in by the two inverted ⋃'s which the stream hereabouts described. Between these two tongues and on the north of the river an undulating plain rose gently to the mountains, which ran parallel to the river course and shut it in. Exit from this plain there was none without scaling the mountains; on three sides, south, east, and west, was the river, on the fourth the mountain ridge. Thus there was no means of outflanking the enemy when once the army had crossed the river. A frontal assault would be inevitable; and already the Boers could be seen in small parties on the crest of the mountain line, building schanzes, digging trenches, and improvising defences.
[Jan. 11, 1900.