Showing its inner tube C, on which is shrunk first an outer tube B, then the jacket A. The breech-ring--the projecting portion at the back--serves both to give additional strength to the breech and for the attachment of the hydraulic buffers which take up the "recoil."] [Sidenote: Boer methods.] An American who visited their position thus describes their plan of defence at this point:--"The Boers know how to select their ground and use it with the greatest judgment. They are confident now that Methuen cannot pass them without losing half his army. Their new mode of fighting is to put great numbers of their best shots, armed with Mausers and using smokeless powder, out on the flats in rifle shelters. On the sky-line of the hills they post their Martini-Henry men with the old black powder cartridges. The latter are to draw the artillery fire, while the Mauser men in front are to shoot down the English infantry and cavalry at closer quarters. All the men have the greatest confidence in Cronje. He did not believe that the English would attack him for some time after the Modder fight, but declared that, when they did, the more men they brought the greater their loss would be." [Illustration: A 5-INCH HOWITZER, AS USED BY THE BRITISH AT MAGERSFONTEIN. Partly in section, showing the hydraulic buffers and the apparatus for raising and lowering the muzzle. This weapon can be fired at an elevation of forty-five degrees; it is intended to throw its shell high into the air so that it shall fall within the enemy's earthworks or other defences.] [Sidenote: Difficulty of relieving Kimberley.] [Sidenote: DEC. 6-9, 1899.] _No Alternative to a Frontal Attack._] Lord Methuen had positive orders to relieve Kimberley, and the execution of these grew harder with each day's delay. The enemy's position was steadily strengthened; fresh works were pushed out; reinforcements were called up from all quarters, as the Boers laid enormous stress upon the capture of the diamond city with Mr. Rhodes inside it. There was no obvious way round; to march off to the west and endeavour to turn the Boer right would have led the column through a waterless country, and have left the enemy free to throw their whole force upon the British line of communications, thus fatally severing Lord Methuen from his base. To march to the east, in the direction of Jacobsdal, would have meant once more crossing the Modder in the face of a highly mobile enemy, who could move two miles to the British one--in other words, a repetition of the Modder River battle. There was only sufficient transport to carry five days' supplies, so that no wide detour was possible. The last course remained--a desperate course as it proved--to take the bull by the horns and assault the Boer position full in the front. [Illustration: THE BARBED-WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS AT MAGERSFONTEIN.