remnant oe the Russian fleet within the Admiral o having imprisoned the harbour, @ neral Nogi. tightened his huid the land Ca the 17: h of August occupied a point cowards Pigeon Bay, uch it became powible ty bombard great forts on Antzeshan and Itzoshan the heavy siege gus, now successfully landed at Daloy and brought up by a light railway laid for the purpose. Forts were built by the besiegers on the hills already Occupied, and about che 19th "f August the first of several great youcral asauults on the fortress.. For several deys the fighting continued furiously, then'the besiegers fell back temporarily exhausted. A month of seeming inactivity followed, snd even he eneuuragwment from the great victory of the Manchurian army at Lisoyang did not sir them into direct mover ments, Tu the meantime the hi rauwers were busy. Part of the Japenese fleet bal ween wiehdeawn for Verna ing und several voss Is with fod and mnitious @luded the guubsate and destroyers left on patrol duty. Und wwediy dinappuinted by the atourness of the re-instance they hal ust, the Jap anes were preparing carefully for @ better opportunity. lunpels were being driven secretly dissectly under some of the princeps forts, to take which by as-ault had prove! " hopeless task, At Inst on the September another important effort was mody and ita result was to leave G IL Nogi's traps la poss-asian of the two Kur parkin' forts on the heizits above the roadway live, and imm diately commanding the reservoirs on which the town depended for ity water supply: Just two day- e+ lier the guobst Heiyen, wie at work in Figoon Bay, struck one of the mines wi which ths pace was sown and was lost with all on board except four For more than two months there was very little news from Burt Arthur. Cay-tares of sail forts were reported from time to time, but there was no fighting on. a large scale. It wax un-lo-stued that the Tapaneso were filling up their ranke and wore letting time to some of tne work. The bombardments by tue naval guns ashore were able to cause extensive damage in the harbour and the Retvisan jured again. And preparations assault, for it-was hardly to. be. thong!
ruoveding all the time for a:
that jf90d and ammunition within could be exhausted in three months and there was, always the contingency that atten! When it did at length come, Baltic Fleat might demand Admirat Togo's the fighting was mo © severe than any thit hal prodded it. The fir-t blow was de-ivered ut the yr uy of forts trining the noth-ea-tern corer of the eucei" e. After dark of the 26tn of November, and der enver of a heavy cannonade, the Tapaness swarmed up tre sides of Sung-shu shan, East Chiku: w, and Erhlung shan; they captured and' blew: up the breastworke of the fort Las: mentioned, the Ruxs: ans retired to other defences which had been hastily thrown up at tui year, For 9 shor} time the attackers were in actu! p-so-sion of the ridge, and. ¢ uld they have held it, the garriaow would probably have found the rest of the fortress untenable a month earlier than they even. tually did. Ths fire from th- neighbour. ug forts proved however, too severe and the hill, hardly won, had to be "gaw abandoned. 3
Woile the garri.on were still exulting over the repulse of their -uemy in the north-eastern ecruer, they had to ment an -ther vigorous onsl.uzht on the western side. Just outside tue inner girdle of hills, and overtopping them is another known {cow its eminence us the 203-metre Bill, It was strongly hel i, the sides were ex and steep, and, in the reported fry. opinion of General Stissel, it was impreg-nide, On the 28th the Japanese were ficrosly driven back frow its trenches at the point of the bayonet. The following day they poured kerosene oil on logs in their owa trenches and started " furious fire, was driven by strong wind wards the Russians; but still the defenders clung to their posts, On the eventful 20th, dawn, the Japanese advanced again through the barbed wire entang'ementa over which they roughly cons: ructed roads with sand bala, and although they were unsuccessful at first they captured the third row "f trenches at 10 pin, At five o'clock next morning they advanced again on the southeastern coruar of the Lill and gut within thirty yards of the summit, Reinforced, they advageed on the north-ons ora comer survived f-d to ver furts, which could not, hower by their bombard wuts from tower levels dis od © the victors from the high hill, 411 "tempts to recover the forts failed, and on the 3rt of December the Russians had acquiesced in the inevitable and agreed to an armistice, which gave bob sides an opportunity to remove their dead and led to & most picturesque exchange of courtesies between officers of the opposing armies, With he fall of 203-metre Hill the shir showy x meant of the Pert Arthur squadron was doomed. Up the ingly unseatable sides the Japanese siege guns dragged, and from the summit they c-id aw ep the whole western harbour One last chance remarried tothe Kussians to go outeds ad perish in x final ge-pp wih the foe; they preferred to lie help-lexs till they were battered int" wrecks Any th- Sebastopol, which bad been portly sheltered riy the Tizers''s Tail, and which "had in Captain yon Essen, formerly. of the Novik, the one naval commander with a five ing record, wot up steam and moved to the outer archorsge, where, protected by netting. she waxed for some days a galant but unequal contest. against the terped" flotilla, which were successively sent against her. A not very creditable attempt was made to swe the rest of ti squadron by placing hospital vesx" in their midst and appealing to not to fire on the Red Cross flag.
ice was not allowed to dive he Japanese: from their purpose and within a fortnight the fi-et had been entirely destroyed, A few torpedo-b-ats und d -etroyers remained to be used in the final sauve qui peut. The destroyer Ratstoropny had already, immediately on the capture of the bil, slippd out in a snow-storm, reach: d Chefuo, delivere! d patches. then with " total di for Chinese neutrality, blows herself up in the har 16th of December an open ship's boat with @ naval officer an: six men found a desperate way through and detivere! mor- mes-ages he news ablicly reported was that Genera 8 dssel had been slightly wounded, but thas Generals Smizac# and Kopdrachenko were in the. trenches day and night directing the defence; but s an indication that might p-spare the world for a catastrophe it was asserted that of the 16,000 o-mbateuts remaining in Por: Artuur, hat were in hospital, while wound: d men were on daty in the forts, Phe truth appears to have been that, General Stésael, at all events, was tiring of the defence, that the men themselves continued '0 fight most unwillingly, and tint only the ardour of the yo Generals Joey nile the Restructiga of the Root had just named kep: the flag atill flying;
been attracting attention, General Nogi had not abandoned his designs on the group of forts at the north-eastern corner.
tunnelling hal been pushed on, anit on the 17th te parapets of East Chikuanshan fort were suddenly blown ap. A fierce resixt.nce was made, but the besiegers were not to ied_at their second attempt and the enceinte itself had now been definitely A more serious loss even than that of the fort was the death about this time of the gallant General Kondrachevko] who wax killed by the explosion of " Japanese shell withi the fort while a Council of War was being held. Thereafter the siege operations proceeded rapidly. The great fort of Krhlungshan was seized and firm y occupied. on the 28th of December xt day the neighbouring fort of anyshuvhan fell, and on the morning of New Your's Diy fort and Paulungshan were in the possession. of the Japauene who had thus forced the entire corner That night G.neral Stdssel sent his pro:* position to surrender. It had been thought that the remnant of the garrison would retire to Liaotishan or some other the yet untaken forty ani resist to the Inst. 'The letter offering surionder came as & surprise 10 everyone, astonishment had ceasd_ the tei capitulation had been settled and the ten months' straggle for the mastery of,.the Linotung Peninsula was 0 We have yet to wait for full information as to the condition of the fortress at the time of the surrender. A few facts have already been established, and they are that there was riv lack of ford or oun), while; ue spoils included a large quantity of av.munition, There were many more supp-sel, the shrips were still doing pri fighting men left than had been popularly vote business jo the new town plaice was far from uniuh" surrender must bxve come was o-train, all pos-ibility of relief having passed. It sasible to reproach the defenders for giving up a hopeless struggle, But the siege of Port Arthur will hardly be reckoned among the great defences of the world and the extravagant eulogies passed on General ~téacel and his garrison are not likely to be repeated in history.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.