6 
the last year. Three are at present home on sick leave and two others have been 
transferred to depots, while scarcely a week has gone by without there being one 
or more on the sick list. Although Malta has been called a cc health resort” it 
does not keep up its reputation during the summer months. Poor Smith-Neil 
was only ill a few days before he died ; he had been very ill during the previous 
summer and his constitution had not apparently thrown off the effects of his 
former fever, so that he made little or no resistance when attacked by enteric. 
A subscription list has been opened to erect a tombstone to his memory. 
Malta is generally supposed to be such an excellent place to get home on leave 
to England for three-and-a-half months during the summer and autumn, but 
this has not been the case this year. Three subalterns were recalled from leave 
after they had been home "only a few weeks, on account of some brawls which 
had occurred between the soldiers and natives ; and the majority of the junior 
officers have not been able to get more than two months’ leave. 
The summer has been very hot. The average shade temperature taken at 4 
p.m. was 82° during August. 
Cricket began in August and the R.A. have played two Regimental matches on 
the Marsa; that against the Connaught Rangers ending in a draw, and that 
against the Queen’s in a win for the R.A. 
OKEHAMPTOW, 
Friday, the 19th August, was devoted to field firing, the troops. engaged being 
the three Field Batteries at practice, viz., 13th, 61st, and 69th, one company of 
Royal Engineers in Camp; and infantry from Plymouth, from the Rifle Brigade, 
the King’s Own Borderers, the Dorset Regiment, and Royal Marines, in all about 
1200 men. 
The ground selected was that known as No. 2 Range. The enemy, consisting 
of about 1200 dummies, was in a strongly intrenched position on East Mil Tor, 
with an advanced position some 1000 yards in front. On the extreme left of the 
enemy’s advanced position a number of Hessian targets had been arranged to 
represent a village, and to protect this the sappers had thrown up an earthwork 
about five feet high, backed with 12-inch baulks of timber. 
Between the village and the main position a stone fort had been built, one 
face of which was three feet thick, and unprotected ; the other face two feet 
thick, with sods thrown up to cover it. On the top of the wall, sand-bag loop¬ 
holes were constructed, and dummies placed in position behind. 
The enemy had one battery of artillery on East Mil Tor, and another on the 
bluff, the eastern slope of Yes Tor. 
At 10 o’clock the advanced guard moved off from the Moor Gate to Holstock 
Hill with one battery of artillery, which at once came into action against the 
village at a range of about 1650 yards, and fired 60 rounds. The infantry then 
advanced to attack the village and other advanced positions of the enemy, and, 
after brisk firing, compelled him to retire on the main position of East Mil Tor. 
The remaining two batteries had in the meantime come into action on the left of 
the battery mentioned before, and all directed their fire on the enemy’s guns, at 
ranges of from 2300 to 2700 yards. The firing was continued for 15 minutes, 
and then the artillery advanced to a second position, two batteries on the left, 
and one on the right, of the stream which flows down the range. The left bat¬ 
tery came into action against the stone fort, at a range of about 1250 yards, and 
the remaining batteries against the entrenchments. After 10 minutes firing the 
infantry advanced and delivered the final attack on the main position, supported 
