78 SPORTING AND 



and the incessant popping was very 

 exciting. The first serious obstacle which 

 presented itself was a strong barricade of 

 heavy trunks of trees sunk well into the 

 ground and loopholed every yard or so ; here 

 they poured such a shower of all sorts of 

 missiles on us that we were glad to retire a 

 little and lie down until the Artillery came 

 up. It took them a long while to effect a 

 breach in this solid wall, but, in time 

 they did so, and on our rushing into it, 

 we were surprised to find it empty ; the 

 enemy, seeing the breach we had made, 

 knew what would follow, and prudently 

 retreated higher up the mountain ; in fact, 

 this sort of thing continued till we neared 

 the top, where we all knew a final and 

 grand struggle would ensue. We only 

 reached this height towards evening, when 

 our chief wisely halted for the night : in 



