THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
491 
Thus the balance of advantage remains with the gun-pit. 
It was intended by the writer to have carried out the experiment of 
gun-pits versus gun batteries with his battery at Cannanore; but in 
India the time in which Europeans can work in the. open air is so very 
short, that experiments were only made in the formation of gun-pits. 
The battery having marched a distance of four miles into the country, 
formed line on an open plain sloping very gently to the front, and proper 
points for entrenchment being selected, echellons of subdivisions were 
thrown forward from both flanks, and the order was given to entrench. 
The ground was light, arable, and sandy, and covered with roots of 
coarse bent grass, as is common in the plains of India. The pick was not 
required to be used. 
Previous to breaking ground, the men, in order to obtain the trace, 
were instructed in a preliminary drill devised for the occasion. Working 
drawings were issued by division officers to Nos. 1 the day before. 
Fig-. 1.—Gun-Pit. 
SECTION o?t A B 
