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FIRST GLIMPSE OF PORT ARTHUR 37
inclines, over which the guns and the rifles of the
defenders had full command. There were every-
where excellent observation posts to be found for
the direction of the artillery fire. The reverse
slopes of the hills afforded good cover for the guns
and the troops. In short, from nature’s hand the
country round Port Arthur is a nearly ideal place
for a fortress, and the Russian engineers had
understood to a large extent how to turn these
advantages to account.
The one great drawback was that the line of
defence, as already intimated, was too close to the
town and the harbour, allowing the Japanese to
bring their guns into positions from where they
could fire into the town from the first day of the
siege. If the Russians had had time to fortify
also the outer line of defence, from the peninsula
to the north of Louisa Bay across the Feng-
hoangshan range and Takushan to the sea, and to
provide it with fortifications as strong as the ones
they had constructed along the inner line, Port
Arthur, if properly provisioned, would have been
practically impregnable. As it was, this outer
line, which to a great extent dominated the
Russian fortifications, came to form the Japanese
offensive position. Practically concentric with
the Russian line of defence, and at a most
favourable distance from it, with a large tract of
open country at its rear, where camps and maga-
zines could be built, screened and sheltered from
the Russian fire, this position, which would have
formed a most excellent line of defence for the
Russians, came to form an ideal base for the
Japanese offensive operations.
Still, even with this drawback, the positions
which the Russians had chosen and fortified were
exceedingly strong, and the general plan of the
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