Chinese in a few days, proves that the soundest military principles were adhered to. The main positions were defended by advanced works surrounded by deep moats, in which were built bombproof defences, roofed with steel plates, and by fanfasses, or mines filled with huge stones, which could be exploded by the pressure of an electric button. The approaches were rendered almost inaccessible by barbed-wire entanglements, pits planted with sharpened stakes, and by transverse works and trenches which commanded with an enfilading fire every possible line of advance. The broad scheme of the fortifications may be easily grasped. Fronting Takhe Bay on the east is the Petushan group of forts, with the Keekwan-Urlong forts commanding the approaches from the north and the northeast, and preventing the Petushan forts from being taken in reverse. West of these forts and on the other side of the parade-ground and railway are the Antszshan and the Etseshan forts, which prevent any attack from the northwest, while a chain of forts from Antszshan to Sunghslwo, running southeastwards down to the inner harbor, command the parade-ground and railway line. Another line of forts stretches due south from Etseshan to White Wolf Hill on the west side of the west port, while yet another series of heavy fortifications surmounts the high ground along the Tiger's Tail. Well might the Russians boast that their fortress was impregnable, for if any place of arms could be justly so described, Nature and military ingenuity had combined to earn that title for Port Arthur. At the outset of the investment, Port Arthur's garrison numbered, all told, some 35,000 men. It was made up of the 3rd, 4th and 7th East Siberian Rifle Brigades, with part of the 6th, and with the East Siberian Rifle Artillery Division, and, of course, with the crews of all the men-o'-war lying imprisoned in the harbor. The numbers were none too great to man adequately the great chain of works behind which Port Arthur's security lay; but the troops were of the best quality, and they had the invaluable inspiration of such a leader as General Stoessel, with such a capable and gallant lieutenant as General Fock. Stoessel, the hero of the Russian army in the present war, is descended from an old military family. His grandfather was a general in the Swedish army, who afterwards settled in Russia. Stoessel himself, who was born in 1848, entered the Russian army as a cadet at the age of ten, and received his commission eight years later, at the same time, curiously enough, as Kuropatkin. He served with distinction in the Russo-Turkish War, and afterwards held important commands in Siberia, while since 1899 he had been stationed at Port Arthur. To the assault and investment of the fortress, the Japanese, under Nogi, brought up at first 60,000 men, and, as the operations advanced, large reinforcements which not only made good the enormous losses sustained, but swelled the fighting strength to nearly 100,000 men.