Water Difficulties in Early Warfare 21 



ticable at that date. For this bold brow itself stands high 

 enough ; but then, in addition, it is piled on an elevated 

 plateau or table-land, beneath which again is the level at 

 which springs break out. The wells of the district all 

 commence on this table-land or plain. A depression, too, 

 is chosen for the purpose, and their depth is about ninety 

 feet on the average : many are much deeper. But when 

 to this depth the task of digging right down through the 

 hill piled up above the plain is added, the difficulty be- 

 comes extreme. 



On walking round the entrenchment at the bottom of 

 the fosse, and keeping an eye upon the herbage — the best 

 of all guides — one spot may be noticed where there grows a 

 little of that ' rowetty ' grass seen in the damp furrows of 

 the meadows. But there is no sign whatever of a basin or 

 excavation to catch and contain this slight moisture — 

 slight indeed, for the earth is as hard and impenetrable 

 here as elsewhere, and this faint moisture is evidently 

 caused by the rainfall draining down the slope of the ram- 

 part. Looking next outside the works for the source of 

 such a supply, a spring will be found in a deep coombe, or 

 bottom, about 800 yards — say, half a mile — from the 

 nearest part of the fosse, reckoning in a straight line. 

 Then, in bringing up water from this spring, which may 

 be supposed to have been done in skins, a double ascent 

 had to be made : first up on to the level plateau, here very 

 narrow, next up the steep down itself. Those only who 

 have had experience of the immense labour of watering 

 cattle on the hills can estimate the work this must have 

 been. An idea is obtained of the value of an elevated 

 position in early warfare, when men for the sake of its 

 advantage were found willing to submit to such toil. 



That, however, is not all — foraging parties fetching 



