Were the defences so weak as to lay the fortress open to capture by assault? General Reiss, Chief of the Staff, and, probably, General Stoessel himself, held that opinion, and sought to avert the horrors of a citadel taken by storm. The situation at the moment of surrender may be briefly described. On the morning of December 31st the Japanese destroyed Sungshushan at the Western extremity of the Eastern fort ridge--the centre of the main line of defensive works. Sungshushan occupied a strong natural position, though it was under fire from the supporting fort and could be enfiladed from Idjesham--also a strong fort--and from Antzushan, a battery position, across the gorge of Suishiyei valley. These three positions remained to the last in the hands of the Russians. Late in the afternoon of the 31st the Japanese advanced from Sungshushan and seized the battery position, known as Eboshiyama, to the rear of the fort. At the same time the 9th Division made an assault on the Chinese wall, breached it near East Panlung, and, pouring through the gap, drove the enemy along the trenches to the neck between H. fort and Bodai, or Wantai. Before midnight General Nogi was in possession of all the higher hills of the fort ridge from East Panlung Westward to Sungshushan, except the supporting fort. On the first day of the new year the assaulting force was under the battery position of Bodai--a lofty height on the narrow peak of which were posted two six-inch guns. Again and again this hill was stormed, and was finally carried with a brilliant rush. From Bodai the Japanese looked down over the second line of defences into the heart of the city. During the night of January 1st--after negotiations for the capitulation had begun--when the Russians were busy exploding their battle ships with torpedoes and sinking small vessels at the entrance to the harbour, the Japanese advanced from Bodai to the back of East Keekwan. At two o’clock next morning the enemy blew up several mines in the concrete foundations of that fort and reduced it to a heap of _débris_. At dawn of the day on which the capitulation was signed the Japanese held the Western half of the Eastern fort ridge from East Keekwan to Sungshushan, and were firmly established along the centre of the main line of defensive works. The second line of defence has been described as “strong”--a term that can hardly be applied to a line of entrenched hills dominated by the fort ridge in possession of an enemy. The fact is that experience revealed serious defects in the natural strength of Port Arthur. In some respects the Russian line was admirable for defence. It had a clear field of fire, excellent observation points, and commanded mutual support among the forts. But it had one grave and incurable defect. The line of forts was too near to the city, so that magazines, workshops, supply depôts, and barracks were under constant fire from the line of hills parallel to, and only four thousand yards from, the forts.