These form some of the more important points which have to be taken into consideration, in addition to a mere calculation of the actual distance from which a wound has been received from a particular rifle, and taken with the unsatisfactory nature of the evidence as to the latter, which is usually alone obtainable, it is clear that definite assumptions are scarcely possible. In a great number of cases I came to the conclusion that the only indisputable evidence of low velocity was the lodgment of an undeformed bullet. There is little doubt, moreover, that the general tendency of wounded men was to minimise the range of fire at which they were struck, and again that in the majority of cases in this campaign it was quite impossible to determine whence any particular bullet had come, since the enemy was seldom arranged in one line, but rather in several. Again, smokeless powder was generally employed. Beyond this, in some cases where there was no doubt of the short distance from which the bullet was fired, the wounds were due to 'ricochet' of portions of broken-up bullets. The following instance well illustrates this. A sentry fired five times at two men within a distance of six paces, knocking both down. One man received a severe direct fracture of the ilium, the bullet entering between the anterior superior and inferior iliac spines and emerging at the upper part of the buttock. The entry and exit apertures were large but hardly 'explosive,' as a subcutaneous track four to five inches long separated them. Besides this both men had other lesser injuries; thus in the second two perforating wounds of the arm existed. The latter were not unlike type Lee-Metford wounds, and were regarded as such until a few days afterwards when a hard body was felt in the distal portion of one track and removed. This proved to be a part of the leaden core only, and the similar wound had no doubt been produced by a like fragment, the bullet having broken up on striking the stony ground. _Trajectory._--The comparative flatness of this depends on the construction of the rifle and the propulsive force employed, and varies as does velocity with the nature, excellence, and amount of the explosive, the correctness of the principles upon which the bullet is devised, and the mechanical perfection of its manufacture. Its importance naturally consists in the manner in which it affects the possibility of covering objects on a wide area of ground and thus creating a broad 'dangerous zone.' A bullet fired on level ground from any one of three of the rifles referred to later (Lee-Metford, Mauser, Krag-Joergensen), sighted to 500 yards and fired from the shoulder in the standing position, will cover some part of an erect man of average height during the whole extent of its flight. A body of men within that distance is therefore in a position of extreme peril in the face of a good shooting enemy.