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NOVEMBER 227
men. They had had an opportunity of seeing
what means the Russians would adopt during an
attack, so that this little affair became a kind of
dress rehearsal for the real assault. Finally, the
Russians had wasted a large amount of ammu-
nition, which the Japanese knew they could ill
afford, for it was evident that the Russians were
beginning to run short of ammunition, particularly
for the heavier guns. They had been firing very
little shrapnel lately, and the shells they were
sending against the Japanese batteries were of a
very poor description, most of them old Chinese
shells re-turned and refitted to suit their own guns,
and provided with fuses which in four cases out of
five did not take effect. Some of these shells
were opened and found
to contain only a fraction
of the charge they ought to
hold, while the remainder
of the inner chamber was
filled with wood. In some
cases quite an elaborate
and ingenious arrange-
ment had been made.
The little charge, scarcely
weighing an ounce, was
placed in a raw-silk purse
(a), and this again encased
in a neatly turned, well var-
nished cylindrical wooden
box, the lower part of
which contained the clum-
sily manufactured fuse (c),
kept in place by the
spring (b).
The effect of the Russian artillery fire during
this period was therefore naturally very small ; but
RUSSIAN SHELLS.
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