been impossible for the defenders to live under it. The 500-lb. shells from the howitzers had blown the place to fragments, and except for three men taken prisoners, every soul who manned the guns and trenches had been killed or forced to fly to the forts in the rear. Torn and mutilated bodies, mingled with piles of débris, lay about in hundreds, and the scene was rendered the more appalling by the presence of corpses, in every stage of decomposition, which had been lying on the ground since the attack on September 20th. But the Japanese were not left long in undisturbed possession of the ground they had won. General Stoessel, realizing as fully as his enemy the importance of 203 Metre Hill, made desperate efforts to recapture it. Six separate counter-assaults were delivered, and for hours the fiercest and most sanguinary hand-to-hand fighting raged. But the Japanese had stronger reinforcements than their adversaries, and their numbers and gallantry prevailed at last. After losing nearly 3,000 men, the Russian General realized that the case was hopeless, and left his enemy in possession of the stricken field. Immediately their position was assured the Japanese dragged up their guns and proceeded to pound the neighboring height Akasakayama, from which the Russians were forced to retire with all speed. While this substantial and, as it turned out, decisive victory was being won in the west, an equally determined assault was proceeding in the east against the great forts of Urlungshan, Sungshushan and East Keekwanshan. The Japanese carried their parallels within charging distance of the front of the forts, and then began to mine. Having reached a point beneath the counterscarp, they exploded their mines, and then rushed into the breach thus formed. But the Russians, though losing heavily by the explosions, were prepared for the emergency. They had machine guns placed in position to command the outer defences, and the assailants only gained the breach to be mown down by a hail of bullets. In this assault the Japanese had recourse to the traditional weapon of their ancient chivalry. Under the lead of Generals Nakamura and Saito, trained bodies of swordsmen of the famous Samurai, or warrior-caste, charged into the imminent deadly breach, endeavoring to close in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter with their stubborn foe. But even the traditional gallantry of Japan's knighthood was spent in vain in this enterprise, and the parapets of the forts remained inaccessible to assault. But the Japanese, whose resource in this protracted siege had only been equalled by their indomitable determination, had by this time learned the secret of success against such tremendous fortifications as those with which Port Arthur was begirt. Since gallantry and the sacrifice of life could not prevail, patience and ingenuity must be tried, and the engineers were called upon to carry further still the sapping operations which had already breached the outer works.