The complete destruction or disablement of the remnant of the Russian fleet seems to have had a dispiriting effect, as well it might have, on the defenders of Port Arthur, for from this moment the vigor of their resistance to assault perceptibly waned. In proportion the confidence and resolution of the Japanese increased, and before long their unremitting exertions were rewarded with another substantial success. Hitherto their assaults on the eastern defences of Port Arthur had met with but little success. In spite of all their sacrifices the great permanent forts stood firm; but by the middle of December their new methods of sapping and mining achieved the long-desired breach in the iron ring, and East Keekwanshan fort was captured. A mine had been tunnelled right up to the parapet of the fort, and in the afternoon of December 18th the mine was exploded, bringing down an avalanche of earth and masonry that filled up the ditch in its fall, and made a rude but practicable staircase up the deep counter-scarp into the interior of the fort. The Japanese troops, lying ready in their trenches, sprang forward to the breach before the garrison could recover from the discomfiture of the explosion, and poured into the inner works, flinging their terrible hand-grenades at all who opposed their impetuous charge. But after the first surprise, the Russians recovered and stood their ground, and by turning machine guns on the assailants, held them for a time at bay. While the issue still hung in the balance, however, General Samejuna, at the head of the Japanese reserves, flung himself into the fighting line, and a last great charge swept the fort clear of its dogged defenders. The fight lasted for no less than ten hours, and immediately it was won the Japanese entrenched themselves to make their hold secure. The attack, in this case, was entrusted to two bodies of volunteers, who, in calm anticipation of their probable fate, had fastened to their clothing badges of identification, so that the corpses should be recognizable in spite of the disfiguring effects of the explosion of hand-grenades. One-half of these devoted men charged from their trenches too eagerly after the mine had been fired, with the result that most of them were buried beneath the falling debris. The nature and extent of the mining operations which made the capture of East Keekwanshan practicable may be gathered from the fact that two tunnels 40 feet long had been dug out, and that both tunnels terminated in four branches, in each of which a separate mine was laid. Four quick-firers, five field guns, and four machine guns, and a large quantity of rifles and ammunition, were among the spoils that fell to the victors in this assault. Only twenty men of the garrison escaped down a covered way, which they blocked behind them by the explosion of mines. The fort captured, though not one of the strongest of those on the eastern ridge, was yet of great importance to the besiegers,