the fort, and these huts are also very ingeniously devised, and are furthermore bomb-proof. They consist of a hole dug a yard and a half deep, and covered with wood. This wood forms a ceiling, over which the earth from the interior is placed to the depth of a couple of feet, and a thatched roof placed over all to keep off the rain. In many of the bomas we found that the defenders had dug holes from the main trenches outwards, in which they lived, having lined them with straw.

The whole fort is often divided into four or more sections by a palisade and trenches, so that if one part of it is stormed the storming party finds itself in a cross fire — a worse position than when actually trying to effect an entrance. We found that the shells from the 7 '5 Krupps did little or no damage to these forts. On the 29th October