THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
301 
The most favourable position for guns is a gentle hillock, sloping 
gradually to the front and more abruptly towards the rear, with a 
command over the ground occupied by the enemy of about 1 in 100— 
such as is shown in Fig. 4. In case the ground does not rise in front 
Fig. 4. 
of the guns, as in Fig. 4, it is by all means desirable to throw up a small 
entrenchment, or form a gun-pit, to supply the necessary cover, as in 
Fig. 5. 
Fig. 5. 
If the top of the hillock be flat and its command sufficient, as in 
Fig. 6, the guns will not require any .epaulment. 
Fig. 6. 
If the top of the hillock be rounded off sharply, as in Fig. 7, a small 
level platform must be dug out on the rear slope \ for otherwise it 
Fig. 7. 
would be not only impossible to give sufficient depression to the gun, 
but the force of the recoil would drive the gun down the back slope 
of the hill. 1 This course might be adopted with success in case the 
guns occupy a railway embankment, where the breadth and command 
are not sufficient to defilade the guns in the way shown in Fig. 6. 
If a canal, a sunken road, or a railway cutting be at hand, parallel to 
the front of the battery, the guns should be run close up to the edge^ 
1 This actually happened to a battery in Bhootan in 1864, at the attack on Dewangiri. 
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