120 The Rough Riders 



V 



lay close under the bank of the lane, others slipped 

 into the San Juan River and crouched under its 

 hither bank, while the rest lay down behind the 

 patches of bushy jungle in the tall grass. The 

 heat was intense, and many of the men were al- 

 ready showing signs of exhaustion. The sides of 

 the hills in front were bare; but the country up 

 to them was, for the most part, covered with such 

 dense jungle that in charging through it no ac- 

 curacy of formation could possibly be preserved. 

 The fight was now on in good earnest, and the 

 Spaniards on the hills were engaged in heavy volley 

 firing. The Mauser bullets drove in sheets through 

 the trees and the tall jungle grass, making a pecul- 

 iar whirring or rustling sound; some of the bullets 

 seemed to pop in the air, so that we thought they 

 were explosive; and, indeed, many of those which 

 were coated with brass did explode, in the sense that 

 the brass coat was ripped off, making a thin plate of 

 hard metal with a jagged edge, which inflicted a 

 ghastly wound. These bullets were shot from a 

 45-calibre rifle carrying smokeless powder, which 

 was much used by the guerillas and irregular 

 Spanish troops. The Mauser bullets themselves 

 made a small, clean hole, with the result that the 

 wound healed in a most astonishing manner. One 

 or two of our men who were shot in the head had 

 the skull blown open, but elsewhere the wounds 



