Before entering, however, upon a narrative of the attacks upon Port Arthur which followed in swift succession upon the great battle of the 9th, it may be well to give some description of that famous stronghold. The inner harbor is oval in shape, and two miles long from east to west and a mile in breadth from north to south. The shores are protected by hills, which the Russians had assiduously fortified since they obtained occupation of the place. Entrance is afforded from the south by a narrow channel, so narrow indeed that while it has the advantage of being easily held against an enemy, it has the counteracting disadvantage of being somewhat difficult of navigation for the ships of the defending fleet. The mouth of this channel is protected on the southwest by two dangerous reefs, which would prove a snare to an unwary foe; while on the eastern shore there stands the hill of Kwang-chin-shan, 250 feet above the sea level, upon which frown the guns of several powerful batteries. Upon the lower slopes the Russians had established two batteries of Canet quick-firing 5.5in. and 7.5mm. guns, with a torpedo and searchlight station. The entrance channel is flanked along the northwest by a narrow strip of land which goes by the expressive name of the "Tiger's Tail," and this strip was fortified with battery of 7 Canet 5.5in. quick-firing guns. The distance from the Pinnacle Rock, one of the reefs above mentioned as situated at the western corner of the entrance passage, to the opposite shore, is nearly 350 yards. In its course the channel narrows, till at one point it is only 500 feet in width, but it widens out again at the northern end. At the northeastern end lies the basin, or East Port. There is accommodation here for about a dozen large men-of-war, and on the north side stands the one dry dock for repairing large vessels of which Port Arthur can boast. On the other side of the channel, which at this point is 430 yards in width, lies the mouth of the harbor proper, facing the southeast. To enter it, ships have to round the Tiger's Tail, not a particularly easy process for men-of-war of the largest size. Nor is the harbor itself yet fitted to receive a great fleet. When the Russians took it over they found that it was too shallow for berthing vessels even of a moderate size; and in spite of the feverish activity of their engineers in the last year or two, the dredging operations have not proceeded far enough to allow of accommodations for more than three battleships, together with minor craft. Hence the Port Arthur squadron has generally been disposed either in the East Port, or basin, or in the open roadstead outside the entrance channel. It was indeed the position of the Russian ships in this latter anchorage that gave the Japanese the opportunity for their fatal torpedo attack on the 8th. [Illustration: _THE HARBOR OF PORT ARTHUR._] [Sidenote: The Russian Forts]