telegram of warm congratulation and praise. Hesitation was justified by the event; for two days after their alleged decisive repulse they captured the dominant position of Wolf Hill, and thereby made the first important breach in the defences of Port Arthur. Wolf Hill is an eminence half a mile south of the village of Suei-ze-ying, which is some three and a half miles along the railway line running due north from Port Arthur. The importance of the captured position for the Japanese was that it enabled siege guns to command, within easily effective range, the anchorage of the Russian squadron on the inside of the Tiger's Tail. This meant, of course, either that the fleet must go to sea and fight, or must endure impotently the hammering of the 12in. shells which soon began to drop from the batteries on Wolf's Hill. Within a week of the capture of the position, the Japanese had mounted their siege guns; and after a bombardment of two days, the Russian decision was taken to attempt another sortie. The last sortie, it will be remembered, took place on June 23rd, and ended in the inglorious return of the whole fleet; as the Russian Admiral, in spite of the advantage which, as we now know, he possessed over his enemy in battle strength, did not dare to give battle. This decision which let slip one of the best opportunities that the Russian Pacific Squadron ever had of favorably modifying the naval situation in the Far East, was ill-received at St. Petersburg, where carefully planned dispositions were thus brought to nought; and as soon as the contemplation of another sortie became immediately necessary, the strictest injunctions were sent to Admiral Witoft as to his course of action. [Sidenote: Admiral Witoft's Sortie]