Many portions of the right being enfiladed by the enemy’s riflemen posted on the spur leading to the Mamelon, a new trace was adopted to counterbalance its effects. It was begun on the night of the 27th, and before the morning seventy yards of ground were opened, and a dead mound of earth more than four feet high faced the enemy. With the same object parapets were heightened and those in advance thickened, whilst a zigzag leading to the advanced parallel was changed in its direction. In this zigzag, to suit the changed character of the trench, the parapet close to the _well_—for there were wells in the excavations—was pulled down and a drain built through it. Stones also were placed at easy distances, as in an Irish bog or shallow stream, to enable the men going for water to keep their feet dry and prevent the destruction of the sewer. In the night of the 2nd March the sapper brigades made a road for the passage of ordnance into the eight-gun battery, and two were brought in and mounted by the artillery. At daybreak the opening was blinded with gabions and fascines, and continued so masked till the time for passing the remaining armament into the battery. Next night, with a line party, they commenced in front of the third parallel on the left attack an elevated sand-bag battery, technically termed No. 7, for six guns. Captain Hassard directed the work. The approach to it was by flying sap. About 10,000 sand-bags were laid during the darkness on open ground without shelter. The cover exceeded five feet, and its thickness at bottom six feet. Earth was thrown among the layers of bags by a strong force of shovellers from the outside. The soil was of a clayey nature, and made the work compact. Three traverses were built and two magazines well advanced. The embrasures, formed as the work proceeded, were blinded just before the relief, so that at daylight the battery seemed like a common mound only. It, however, told its tale to the enemy. The first relief gave 165 men of the line, but only 90 for the second. The number of sappers in the battery were about 120. The 17th, 57th, and Rifles worked very well, but the contingents from other regiments left with discredit. “The sappers worked admirably throughout the night without being relieved.” One regiment in the following night, though remonstrated with by General Barnard, laboured very indifferently. By the 7th the parapet of the battery had attained an average width of 16 feet, and the right epaulment had risen to an altitude which afforded excellent cover to the sappers constructing the magazines during the day.