I have called attention to the grave disability under which the Japanese labour by reason of the inferior range and weight of their artillery. Never was the disadvantage more painfully demonstrated than on this day, when the infantry were in need of their support, and when the chances of a whole lifetime escaped under their very muzzles. The ground about the battery was covered with shrapnel as the tiny white clouds burst in the sky, the bases of shells throwing up brown clouds of earth, and the bullets rippling over the loose friable loam like heavy rain drops. Very terrible it looked, yet no damage was done. The men took refuge in deep pits, out of which they came occasionally to serve the guns, or to bring ammunition from the wagons. The practice of taking shelter when a battery is under fire is one that commends itself at first sight, but reflection and observation shew that it may become a vicious and a dangerous habit, and may seriously affect the usefulness of artillery in action. In every other respect the Japanese guns are skilfully handled. Happily, the Russian gunners are not without defects. Their shrapnel bursts high, and the French system of _Rafale_--that is giving each gun in a battery a slightly different range--is not a success in their hands. For several hours the unequal artillery duel went on. Occasionally the batteries at Bastion Hill would seek a new objective, and the tree tops about the villages would be flecked with white clouds. From the mountains beyond Bastion Hill to the East the enemy’s guns kept up a desultory cannonade against the hills on our front, and from one of our batteries on the plain to the West came spasmodic replies.