ACHIEVEMENTS OF FIELD ARTILLERY. 
117 
a position was selected for the two Horse Artillery guns on the shoulder 
of a sand hill 600 yards from the canal, and between the infantry and 
the Marine artillerymen. 
The cavalry and mounted infantry watched the enemy on some high 
ground on the right flank, and manoeuvred to prevent his enveloping 
us there. 
At 9 a.m. the Egyptians opened a distant but heavy musketry fire 
on the cavalry. They also extended their right beyond the canal, and 
advanced bodies of all three arms to within 2000 yards of our line in 
front of it. At 9.40 four guns began to fire on the hillock where our 
artillery stood, and a quarter-of-an-hour later two more were brought 
into action. The practice of these guns was good, but their fuzes did 
not act properly, and consequently their shrapnel was ineffective, while 
the soft and sandy nature of the soil also militated against the effect of 
their common shell and percussion fuzes. But for this our losses would 
in all probability have been severe. 
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Meanwhile Sir Garnet reserved the fire of our guns until the enemy 
should approach to a more decisive range. 
About 10.30, however, as the fire of the six hostile guns was annoy¬ 
ing our cavalry considerably, it was judged better to engage them with 
ours, especially as a trial shot (the range-finder had exaggerated the 
distance by more that 1000 yards) showed that they were within 
effective range. Two rounds of shrapnel caused some of the guns to 
be withdrawn further to the rear at once, but from thence the six guns 
turned their fire on our two. 1 
At 12 o’clock the enemy had brought reinforcements on the scene, 
which worked round our left, and a fresh battery from their right flank 
enfiladed and even took in reverse the position occupied by our infantry 
and artillery. 
Two Gatlings and a party of sailors also now arrived, however, to 
our assistance, and our line was thrown back at right angles to engage 
the new enemy, whose fire was replied to by one machine gun and one 
of the Horse Artillery guns. A hillock supplied cover to our limbers 
and wagons, and the sandy soil again befriended us, or we must have 
suffered very severely. 
The second Gatling was sent to the aid of the infantry on our left 
1 The first battery consisted of rifled bronze muzzle-loaders, the second were Krupps> 
16 
