This is the officer mentioned on page 214 (note to illustration) under the name of Carlisle-Carr, who with six of the South African Light Horse swam the Tugela and brought over the pont.] [Sidenote: JAN. 11, 1900.] _The Boers Entrenching._] The Tugela at this point swirls along a rocky bed with precipitous banks at the rate of ten miles an hour when in flood, varying in width from 100 to 300 feet. To pass the drift, which is always difficult and dangerous except when the stream is exceptionally low, marks on the rocks have to be consulted. The road does not run direct across the river, but makes a wide bend; it descends to the river bed from the level of the surrounding veldt by a very steep and narrow cutting. There are huge boulders in the stream, hidden in its turbid waters, which render the crossing particularly awkward for waggons. Into this treacherous torrent presently plunged Lieutenant Carlisle and six of the rank and file of the South African Light Horse--Sergeant Turner, Corporals Barkley and Cox, and Troopers Godden, Howell, and Collingwood--all volunteers, and swam for the other side to seize the pont. They reached it safely, released it, and started in it to recross, but in mid stream were fired upon by the Boers. Fortunately, only Lieutenant Carlisle was slightly wounded. A covering party of twenty British troopers returned the fire with small effect. In the course of the morning the 1st Durham Light Infantry and 2nd Scottish Rifles, speedily followed by the rest of General Lyttelton's Brigade, arrived, and Spearman's Hill was at length secure. [Sidenote: The Boers entrenching.] From Spearman's Hill the Ladysmith heliograph could be seen endeavouring to call up the British. The signalmen were speedily in communication, when they learnt that Sir George White's officers could make out the enemy in large numbers moving west and south to the threatened point. And the men on Spearman's Hill, for their part, could see hundreds and thousands of small dark figures at work upon the slopes and crests of the mountains opposite. "Every favourable bit of ground they could be seen inspecting," says Mr. Burleigh, "while hundreds toiled in every direction. Their object was unmistakable--to draw line after line of trenches and to erect forts which would command every inch of ground from the river front up to and beyond the crested ridges four miles north. Besides that, to the west, they were crowning lofty Spion Kop with defences and gun-positions." In a word, while the British infantry were slowly and painfully marching to find the enemy's right flank, the Boers by virtue of their mobility had already prolonged that flank so far to the west that it could not be turned. Yet the confidence in the British army as to the success of the move was so great that already officers were betting two to one on the relief of Ladysmith before the lapse of another week. [Illustration: _Alec Ball._] THE CAPTURE OF THE PONT AT POTGIETER'S DRIFT.]