impurity of all the water to be found, it was all boiled before being used for drinking. Some of the glory of war was infused into the day by decorating the trains with banners, which had been captured from the Boxers in the engagement of the afternoon before; they were nearly all of triangular shape, red in colour, and with various texts and mottoes on them in black characters. A trolly was sent on ahead, manned by eight of our marines, whose duty it was to scout; they got surrounded by mounted Boxers, and killed twenty of them. As usual, the enemy treated rifle fire with supreme indifference, and only fell back on the advance of a company of bluejackets. On Wednesday the 13th, Lieutenant Smith, the gunnery lieutenant of the “Aurora,” was sent on ahead with fifty sailors, for the purpose of exploring the line, and to guard against surprise. The men were in light marching order and only carried a hundred rounds apiece, with one day’s food and water-bottle. After proceeding for two or three miles, they were attacked by about 1800 sword and spearmen. A joss-house was hastily fortified, and six rushes of the enemy were repulsed with heavy loss—about 150. On the retirement of the Chinese for the sixth time, the ammunition was found to be getting low, so the little force withdrew, and fought its way back without any casualties. Unfortunately it was found necessary to abandon the provisions. The whole day was spent in repairing the sidings and line at Lang-Fang, a large and completely ruined station. A train got through from Tientsin with a welcome mail, and stores of various kinds, and reported that there were signs of the line having been again tampered with in the rear; but that it was expected a good service of trains would soon be running backwards and forwards which would alone suffice to prevent any serious damage being done, unless the Boxers used explosives, of which they did not possess any.