August 20.—­There was no hour appointed for reveille overnight, but we were wakened by the pickets at 2.30 A.M.  At once harnessed up, and marched off without breakfast.  Went north still, as yesterday, following the railway.  Dawn came slow, silent, and majestic into the cloudless sky, where a thin sickle of waning moon hung.  It was a typical African dawn, and I watched every phase of it to-day with care.  Its chief feature is its gentle unobtrusiveness.  About an hour before sunrise, the east grows faintly luminous; then just one arc of it gradually and imperceptibly turns to faint yellow, and then delicate green; but just before the sun tops the veldt there is a curious moment, when all colour fades out except the steel blue of a twilight sky, and the whole firmament is equally lighted, so that it would be hard to say where the sun was going to rise.  The next moment, a sharp rim of dazzling gold cuts the veldt, and in an instant it is broad day.  The same applies to sunset.  There are no “fine sunsets” here, worthy of Ruskinian rhapsodies; they are just exquisitely subtle transitions from day to night.  But, of course, directly the sun is below the horizon, night follows quickly, as in all countries in these latitudes.  There is very little twilight.

(9.30 A.M.)—­The country we cross is studded thickly with small trees.  About 6.30 the enemy’s rifle-fire began on our front.  Our side at first answered with pom-poms, Maxims, and rifle-fire, but our guns have just come into action.  The enemy’s position appears to be a low ridge ahead covered with bush.—­I fancy they were only a skirmishing rear-guard, for after a bit of shrapnel-practice we moved on, and had a long, tiring day of slow marching and halting, with scattered firing going on in front and on the flanks.  The country must demand great caution, for the bush is thick now, and whole commandos might be concealed anywhere.  The Wilts Regiment (some companies of which are brigaded with us) lost several men and an officer.  We camped on an open space just at dark.  Watering was a long, tiresome business, from buckets, at a deep, rocky pool.  There were snipers about, and a shot now and then during the evening.

August 21.—­We harnessed up at four; but waited till seven to move off.  This is always tiresome, as drivers have to stay by their horses all the time; but of course it is necessary that in such a camp, with the enemy in the bush near, all the force should be ready to move at an early hour.  The nights are warm now, but there is a very chilly time in the small hours.  We marched through the same undulating, wooded country, crossing a brute of a drift over a river, where we hooked in an extra pair of horses to our team.  In the summer this must be a lovely region, when the trees and grass are green; very like the New Forest, I should think.  We had a long halt in the middle of the day, and then marched on till five, when we camped.  We waited