One more shell would have hit us.' Mountain mists saved the defeated burghers from a close pursuit, but the hills were carried.

The British losses on this day, September 8th, were thirteen killed and twenty-five wounded; but of these thirty-eight no less than half were accounted for by one of those strange malignant freaks which can neither be foreseen nor prevented.

A shrapnel shell, fired at an incredible distance, burst right over the Volunteer Company of the Gordons who were marching in column.

Nineteen men fell, but it is worth recording that, smitten so suddenly and so terribly, the gallant Volunteers continued to advance as steadily as before this misfortune befell them.

On the 9th Buller was still pushing forward to Spitzkop, his guns and the 1st Rifles overpowering a weak rearguard resistance of the Boers.