The pont intact.
In the panorama the most striking object was the great mountain known as Spion Kop or Taba Myama—though the latter name is applied rather to the western part of the crest and slope, and Spion Kop to the eastern summit. It dominated the whole region, rising away to the north-west of Spearman's Hill, at a point where the chain of hills tends upwards to the north-west to meet the Drakensberg. It was flat-topped and grassy on the summit; then it fell away in sheer cliff, but with a narrow and steep incline at one point to the south, where it could just be scaled; then again its lower slopes descended in gentle undulations to the Tugela. On the northern side, so far as could be ascertained, its slope was gentle. So incorrect were the British maps that it was placed many miles out of its position, far away to the west, and this though it was a mountain famous in history as the point from which the Boer leaders gazed upon Natal and "saw the land that it was good." And beyond it rose the dim outlines, blue with the morning haze, of the troubled sea of mountains which fills Northern Natal; on the horizon the Biggarsberg; then the hills near Elandslaagte, Bulwana and the crests held by the British garrison at Ladysmith; then again to the left the craggy fortresses of the Drakensberg, with waterfalls pouring down their precipitous walls, and melancholy corries and patches of green upland pasture breaking their sombre tints of purple and grey. It was an enchanting vision that unfolded itself—Nature in her grandest and sublimest aspect. Just under Spearman's Hill lay the spidery line of the ferry; the pont itself was at the opposite side of the river, but the rope was intact.
A PONT OR FERRY ON THE TUGELA.
[Photo by Lambert Weston.
This is the officer mentioned on page [214] (note to illustration) under the name of Carlisle-Carr, who with six of the South African Light Horse swam the Tugela and brought over the pont.
Jan. 11, 1900.] The Boers Entrenching.
The Tugela at this point swirls along a rocky bed with precipitous banks at the rate of ten miles an hour when in flood, varying in width from 100 to 300 feet. To pass the drift, which is always difficult and dangerous except when the stream is exceptionally low, marks on the rocks have to be consulted. The road does not run direct across the river, but makes a wide bend; it descends to the river bed from the level of the surrounding veldt by a very steep and narrow cutting. There are huge boulders in the stream, hidden in its turbid waters, which render the crossing particularly awkward for waggons. Into this treacherous torrent presently plunged Lieutenant Carlisle and six of the rank and file of the South African Light Horse—Sergeant Turner, Corporals Barkley and Cox, and Troopers Godden, Howell, and Collingwood—all volunteers, and swam for the other side to seize the pont. They reached it safely, released it, and started in it to recross, but in mid stream were fired upon by the Boers. Fortunately, only Lieutenant Carlisle was slightly wounded. A covering party of twenty British troopers returned the fire with small effect. In the course of the morning the 1st Durham Light Infantry and 2nd Scottish Rifles, speedily followed by the rest of General Lyttelton's Brigade, arrived, and Spearman's Hill was at length secure.
The Boers entrenching.