July 10, 1915. 
LAND AND WATER. 
Austrian trench the searchlights played upon the herd. Tlie 
buffaloes came, dense-packed and yet ordered like massed 
cavalry, Simonetti- could- see them all individually, some 
tall and lank, with spreading wliite horns; others low, with 
immense woolly ruffs, their thick muzzles between their 
crooked knees, with hanging mouths and wet muzzles. They 
came, row after row, pressing on, away from those who had 
tortured them into the emptiness before them where was 
Bomething, anything upon which they might wreak reveno-e. 
He heard their short breaths, sharp bellows like cries of 
rage, and the steady spit of the machine gun turned upon 
the herd. The Austrians were taken by surprise. Here 
and there a man fired a rifle, but only one thought of using 
the machine gun. As the bullets struck them the herd did 
not pause; there was a squeal of pain, but, as if this were 
too much, as if from the past torture the buffaloes had 
gathered ungovernable fury, they doubled their short legs 
under their heavy breasts, bounding. . . . 
Simonetti watched, his body all stiff, for the roaring herd 
was in the entanglements now. He could see them under 
the searchlights, see them as if near enough to touch them, 
with flecks of blood and white sweat upon their hocks. Only 
for a moment did the obstacle seem to stop them. Heads 
first, massive brows bent, the great beasts burrowed into the 
wires, choking with muffled roars, all fury as the barbs stung 
them, hardly noticing the feeble pricking upon their thick 
hides. It seemed the work of a second. The buffaloes 
rushed passed him with tossing heads all tied up in torn 
wire, trampling it in their rage. He had a vision of 
the field of wire, tangled and carried high aloft upon a thou- 
Band horns. His heart beat; it nearly stifled him, so epic, 
beyond arrest, seemed this charge. Then a mine exploded 
. . . he saw a shoot of flame, a spume of smoke that sud- 
denly rose like a white mushroom in the blue-lit blackness of 
the night. The ground shook under him. He saw black 
objects flying in the air; he had a sense of confusion, of 
things falling, of the roar of artillery, of something incom- 
prehensible, incredible, just visible in the searchlights. . . . 
It was like seeing what was not there, because he saw it too 
well. ... 
Then he heard the bugles, and very far down there in the 
hoDow, near the braziers, aery: " Avanti! Avanti/ Savoia! " 
And, magically, line after line, the bersaglieri rose up from 
the soil, flinging aside the white planks which had roofed 
their trench. He could see them, an endless pack, quite 
black, save for the glittering points of the bayonets. And 
in the front, near the Austrian trench, mine after mine ex- 
ploded under the trampling hoofs. For one second in a 
sheet of rising flame he saw the unforgettable: high above, 
mid streaming earth, two vast black shapes that twisted and 
rolled in the air — two buffaloes, hurled aloft, bleeding and 
torn, and yet still gamesome, so lifted, so dying, striking 
with last strength at the empty air. 
Simonetti had crawled down at last. It was a long time 
after, and he was alone, for the fighting now lay far ahead 
of him, far beyond the Austrian trench into which the ber- 
saglieri had poured hard upon the heels of the raging beasts. 
He struggled along the broken ground of the pass towards 
the hollow where were the braziers, warm and comforting. 
His limbs ached, sweat poured from him. For a moment he 
lay upon the ground, breathing hard. He grew aware 
of another breathing a little way off. He started. Lit up 
by the moon he now saw something black and large. It was 
not a rock — he knew that at once; but sometfiing alive that 
lay and breathed heavily. Terrified and exalted, he crawled 
a little closer. Its big black flank rising and falling, shining 
a little in th^. moonlight, lay an old bull buffalo. Its side 
was torn open by a machine-gun volley. It lay there and 
panted, moving a little from right to left its vast woolly 
head. For a second beast and man looked at each other, 
almost as if each one understood the other's hurt. The little 
brown eye of the beast was not yet glazed. It stared at the 
man, and a.s it 50 did the breath came in quicker snorts, the 
head lifted. On paralysed hindquarters the buffalo reared 
up. For one moment it so stood, and, bending its head 
with lowered horns, it leant towards the man as if to gore 
him, to give in fighting the last of its strength. Quite sud- 
denly it grew rigid, then weak; a shiver passed over the broad 
rump. Slowly, all dignity, as its life fled, the old bull 
buffalo laid its head upon the ground and died. Tangled io 
its broad horns was a mass of wire like a silver crown 
Mr Hilairo Belloc's next lecture mt tie Queen's Hall »ilj be on 
Juesday, July 13, at 8.30. 
15» 
THE NAVAL PIANO FUND. 
THE instant response on the part of our readers to 
the appeal for funds to purchase a piano for one of 
the ships in the North Sea Fleet has been gratify- 
ing in the extreme, and we are now able to 
announce that the sum of £45 lis. has been re- 
ceived, although the fund has only been in existence for a 
period of a week. The makers of the piano, the Orchestrello 
Company, of Regent Street, are very generously supplying 
one of their best instruments at a cost of £44 10s., which 
represents a considerable reduction, and the balance of the 
sum subscribed will be devoted to defraying the cost of 
carriage. The subscription list is now closed, and we wish to 
thank our readers for their prompt and generous response. 
We append a list of the subscribers : 
£ a. d. 
W. W. Kettlewefl 2 2 
J. H. S. Fullerton 2 2 
C J. Rivington 2 2 
Edgar Hanbuiy 2 2 
B. K. Hodgson 5 
A. Wyatt Smith 2 2 
Mrs. Owen Wardle 10 
Erneat Owen 110 
J. IL Brodie 2 2 
T. H. Riches 2 2 
Mrs. Murray Baillie 10 6 
Mrs. Newton 5 
Miss Lilian Downe 110 
Miss Edith Lloyd „ 10 
James W. Sbarpe „ 2 2 
Mrs. W. H. BaiUi* 7 6 
F. S. Niven 2 
H. G. Hadfield 10 
Miss Constance Wilmot 10 
T. G. Marsh .-; 110 
Captain Hnddart „ 10 
H. Wade Deacon 110 
W. A. Stewart 10 
Miss Knox 5 
Miss K. A. Williams 5 
A. Baring 2 2 
Miss Dorothy Mugridge ]|/__ 10 
"J. H. C." 110 
Mrs. Duncan 10 
Mrs. Jameson "'...!"" 5 
Miss M. Reid .'.'..'."....'.'....'.." 5 
T. W. Lee ......"........'.'.'"..'.... 10 
Leslie A. Hunter ..__ __^^^ 10 
Anonymous 2 2 
Anonymous '' ■■•"-■*.'■••• o o n 
Asonymoos "! !! 2 
£45 U 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE 
MOTOR AMBULANCE FUND. 
To the Editor of Land and Wateb. 
Dear Sik, — I beg you to permit me to express the most 
sincere thanks of my committee and of all the members of the 
Munro Ambulance Corps to yourself for your generous initia- 
tive in offering us a new ambulance and to the subscribers 
who have enabled you to carry your suggestion into effect. 
The car was taken to the front on the 18th insfc. Owing to 
the corps having, by invitation of the local military authori- 
ties, recently undertaken a fresh field of work, the arrival 
of such a reliable and admirably equipped addition to it* 
fleet is especially opportune, while the value of the gift is 
enhanced by tlie fact that the subscriptions have been bo 
ample as to permit your placing at our disposal a substantial 
Bum towards its future upkeep. 
Let me add that my committee is very sensible of the 
distinction that a spontaneous gift from a paper of such 
standing and so well-informed as Land and Water confers 
upon our little unit and regards it as an indication that the 
services of its active members at the front under its founder. 
Dr. Hector Munro, and, since his retirement to join Uie 
R.A.M.C., under its present commandant, Mr. Ivor Bevau, 
are considered deserving of public support. 
I am. Sir, yours faithfully, 
EvEKAKU Ffjldinc. 
(Chairman London Comniiit^e, Ue<tor Munro Vclun- 
teer Motor Ambulance Corps) 
5, John Street, Mayfair, W, 
