A few words must here be said concerning the helioscope, which on more than one occasion played a prominent part in this war. One of the great features of the occupation of Port Durnford was the establishment of mirror-signals from the "kop" at Port Durnford, and at the post on the Inyezani down to the mouth of the Umlalasi. The use of mirrors as a means of communication had been so fully demonstrated in Afghanistan, that it seemed astonishing that army officers at Natal were supremely ignorant of, and, indeed, indifferent to, the system. When it is remembered that by this simple process it was found possible to flash intelligence and words of sympathy and kindness to the half-famished garrison at Ekowe, and that by means of this admirable invention, many important items of intelligence were from time to time instantaneously and surely communicated from one part of the British force to another, which through the position of the enemy it was only possible to send by messengers, who were compelled to take the most circuitous routes, thus causing great delay and sometimes even failing to reach their destination at all, the value of this simple yet grand discovery cannot be too highly considered. Its importance in some respects may indeed be declared to be in advance of the electric telegraph, for that necessitates apparatus of delicate mechanism and a friendly, or at least non-hostile territory, over which the messages are sent. A predatory or hostile tribe may at any time sever the line of telegraphic wire, and cut all communications between neighbouring columns who are anxious to make their whereabouts and intentions known; but this cannot be done to the mirror system, where with no more apparatus than a small hand-glass telegraphy is established which no mortal agency can interrupt. No invention, no discovery can surpass in value this mode of silent yet eloquent communication, and only the interruption of the sun's beams by clouds or fogs can interfere with the transmission by signals, noiselessly, and in a manner almost imperceptible to all save the two interlocutors, who may be distant ten, twenty, thirty, or even forty miles. At Gibraltar messages are by this process constantly sent across the Straits; and in Australia, Mauritius, Singapore, and even Canada, the invention has obtained for its discoverer the greatest reputation and _kudos_.