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206 THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR
moat was the large caponier “ h ” from which the
front and the east flank moat could be raked by-
machine-gun and rifle fire. From the chamber
“g” a very strong, massive steel door led out
into the moat. Along the eastern flank the
gallery was only about 5 ft. wide ;
it was not par-
titioned, and was really only a passage which,
through a tunnel “ k ” under the moat and under
the rampart, communicated with the interior of
the fort. This part of the gallery was about a
hundred yards long, and provided with a few
loopholes in its northern part.
During the week following the explosion of
the Russian counter-mine the Japanese had the
damage repaired. Deep saps with strong sand-
bag walls were built up to the spot where the
explosion had laid bare a small portion of the
caponier gallery, and preparations were made to
blast an opening in the wall. The construction
of a strong last parallel right at the back of the
caponier gallery was also commenced.
It goes without saying that the Russians had
not allowed the Japanese to carry out these works
undisturbed. Besides their ordinary means of
harassing their enemies, surprise parties and
sorties, shelling, sniping, and throwing of dyna-
mite bombs from their small mortars—they had
invented a new device for impeding the progress
of the sapping works. They set fire to the sand-
bags which made up the breastworks of the saps,
so that the earth would run out and the walls
collapse. For this purpose they used the brass
cylinders of quick-firing-gun cartridges filled with
a stuff that burned very long and very fiercely
with a flame that could not be put out by water.
These ignited the sandbags, which, during the
sorties, had often been soaked with kerosene. It
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