On the morning of the 24th, in accordance with orders from head-quarters, we marched from the Post at five o'clock, having a party of artillerymen, sixty rank and file, a 6 lbr. howitzer, and a waggon with tents, tools, and rations. Our point was the dangerous Bushneck Pass; our orders to cover the ascent of the Rifle Brigade from that end of the Waterkloof. When about half-way the waggon sunk so deep in a soft gully that neither spades and picks, nor the appliance of an extra span of oxen and a couple of score of fellows yoked to the gun tow-ropes could move it, and it had eventually to be unloaded. As the valley below our position had showed no sign of living creature all day, we retired in the evening to Bear's Farm, a ruin about a mile off, where having pitched our tents and picketted the mules and horses among the blackened walls, we made a blazing fire and prepared to pass the night as comfortably as we could. By eight o'clock next morning the reconnoitering party of Cape Corps, which had been sent at daylight to the top of the Pass, returned with intelligence that the Rifles were advancing up the valley with a large train of waggons; our party was instantly in motion, and, in a very short time back at its position on the edge of the ridge commanding the Pass. While the column was halting for breakfast about two miles from us, we amused ourselves by looking at them through the glass. The rows of piled arms glancing in the sun; the smoke of the fires rising straight upwards in the motionless air; white covered waggons peeping through the green bush; herds of cattle, and multitudes of dark figures moving about in all directions--in the calm of a Sunday morning formed a picture which two hours' gazing upon did not weary us with. At last the faintly heard sound of bugle was followed by a general movement in the bivouac; the oxen were driven in, the confused masses of troops fell imperceptibly into companies, and the companies into column; while, as if by instinct, the oxen gathering into groups, took their place at the waggons, and all was in simultaneous motion. Another change as striking and remarkable followed. The last waggon had scarcely entered the bush and the rear-guard quitted the ground, when the whole of it was dotted over with Kaffirs, stealing in from every part of the bush, where, unconscious of their nearness, the troops had so recently been encamped. We counted thirty-five men, besides women, gathered round the smouldering fires, searching about for what they could find.