The Battle Continues                227
valley. I could not have done so much yesterday, but custom aids coolness. The right and centre of his attack is to a great extent concealed from me by San-joshisan, but I can see the left almost as clearly as I saw the assault of Terayama yesterday evening. The formations are much the same ; that is to say, there appear to be no regular intervals or alignment, each man running on the devil-take-the-hindmost principle, and concentrating all his energies on being the first to reach the enemy's trenches. The Russian artillery have been firing indirect at a range of some 5000 yards upon Senkiujo village, and again, as yesterday, they are much too slow in switching on to the attacking Japanese, and continue to send shell over their head (presumably into the village which I cannot see) long after they have got well out into the open. Even now—• 11.35—when they do change their objective, the shrapnel usually bursts too high and is too scattered to be very destructive. On one particular spot, however, range and fuse have been corrected with some accuracy, and, as if acting on their own initiative, but probably in consequence of orders previously given, the little running groups gave this danger zone a wide berth by closing in to the right hand and to the left.
It strikes me that the character of this assault is even more completely individualistic than in Okasaki's attack of yesterday. I can see great numbers of men fall, presumably to fire or to get breath (as I do not think it possible that so many can have been hit), and yet I never notice a group or section halt and lie down together. It is difficult to be sure, as the moment a man lies motionless I lose sight of him, but I think the