Chris and half a dozen of his party, however,
obtained leave from Captain Brookfield to ascend Mount Alice and see
what was going on. From half-past five a tremendous fire had been kept
up on the Boer positions. The naval guns were distributing their heavy
lyddite shells among the entrenchments distant from three to six miles,
and occasionally throwing up a missile on to the summit of the lofty
hill known as Spion Kop away to the left front. Not less steadily or
effectively the howitzer battery was pounding the Boer position.
At eight o'clock the lads reached the top of Mount Alice, and watched
with intense interest the picturesque and exciting scene. Here they were
far better able than they had been when at Chieveley to see the general
aspect of the country. On the right from Grobler's Kloof hill after
hill, separated apparently by shallow depressions, rose, and from the
higher points occasional flashes of fire burst out as the guns tried
their range against those on Mount Alice, whose heights, however, they
failed to reach. Spion Kop stood out steep and threatening, its summit
being some hundred feet higher than that of Mount Alice. They could now
see that it was not, as it had appeared from the distance, an isolated
and almost conical hill, but was, in fact, connected with hills farther
to the left by a ridge of which it was the termination.
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