Their big guns have generally been moved en waggons hauled by twenty to thirty spun of oxen, and those who have seen such teams at work over kopjes and rough ground, where no horse could escape broken legs, describe the operation as typi cal of the Boer character—patient, slow, and cruel. As if they were the links of a bicy cle chain, half the team only may be in sight over some boulder-strewn, angle-stricken track, while, with ropes from axles and top sides, amid tho Haying whips, the yells of Kaffir drivers, and sullen shouts and blows, the ponderous guns and heavy ammunition loads are trekked for miles to some new position of strength or safety. THE ABANDONED GUNS. The world was thrilled with the news tele graphed on the 15th December, that the ten guns abandoned on the banks of the Tugela were being watched by Buller's forces. Like another Riz pah, she was keeping guard over the bodies of her sons. In thousands of anxi ous minds the hope was encouraged that the guns were being grimly withheld from the enemy, who had been able to beat back the efforts made by a few heroes to bring them eff the field, where they had been overwhelm ed by the sudden rifle fire. Nothing of the cart. When the two batteries of six guns each galloped into the advanced infantry at tack, the storm of bullets that swept the plain like a cyclone, left every section dis abled almost beyond hope of rescue. A few. survivors, and a few volunteers from groups that were taking what precarious shelter the folds in the ground afforded, were able to get -two of the-twelve guns out of range, and to run the other ten pell-mell into a shallow donga, or dry water-course, close at hand, ine army had retired. None were left with in two miles of the river, except the dead and wounded, ancTwhen the ambulances came out there were no guns to be seen. - THE BOER The percentage of loss in the battles of South Africa is said to be not greater with regard to similar numbers engaged in recent ■ wars. That may be so on the British side, but the comparison fails when it is consider ed that the ratio does not apply to the enemy .in the present campaign. 