Nor did the infantry of the left fare much better. They were called upon to carry by assault a position from which most troops would have recoiled. For the first time the Russian trenches were invisible to the naked eye. Evidently they had taken counsel from disaster and have adopted that concealment which is the first principle of war with repeating rifles and smokeless powder. Near Sui-cha-pu-zo, almost at the centre of the enemy’s right flank, one regiment was checked before eight o’clock, and the first and second officers in command were wounded. Another regiment fought hard until eleven o’clock, and three companies, having lost their commanders, succeeded in establishing themselves within two thousand mètres of the enemy. Here they remained, unable to advance in face of the heavy rifle and artillery fire. At noon our left was held in check and the enemy remained secure in all their positions about Yans-huling. It was clear that if we were to escape from this _impasse_ our centre must emerge from the passive _rôle_ assigned to it in the plan of operations. Since dawn we had watched for signs of activity in the Pass. Hitherto the only part we had taken in the advance was to seize an eminence on the Western front. At eleven o’clock on the night of the 30th, a company of infantry had dislodged the enemy from this position. The hill was steep and the Russians defended themselves with stones. An avalanche of rocks swept the assailants off their feet and did serious damage. The commander of the company was wounded as he led his men up the slope: several were killed and more were severely disabled--in all the Japanese had twenty-one casualties before they drove the enemy from the hill at one o’clock in the morning. Hour after hour went by and from Mou-tien-ling came no sign of the presence of an army. The sun stole slowly above the horizon, scattering the morning mist and flooding the green slopes with intense light. Away in the West, beyond the white tower that rose like a lighthouse from a low spur on the Pekin road, were small parties of Russian horsemen. Their white tunics were distinctly visible and distinguished them from a few Chinese who flitted about the entrance to the Pass as though uncertain on which side lay safety. From Mou-tien-ling the Pekin road runs West past the white tower to the village of To-wan and divided the Russian position. At right angles to it, before you come to the tower, is another road, bounded on the East by the steep slope of the Pass and on the West by a range of lofty hills. Between these boundaries stretches a broad cultivated valley watered by a shallow stream, on the West bank of which is situated the village of Tien-shu-tien. In these hills lay the enemy strongly entrenched and protected by two gun positions, one of which was between two conical peaks on a razor-like ridge flanked by a small wood. [Illustration: Japanese Funeral Service.] [Illustration: The Tower at To-wan.]