The news from Lord Methuen ' s column on the West is
almost as good, though it is a record of desperately contested battles. As we write it is known that Lord Methuen has pushed his advance to within twenty-five miles of Kimberley, but to get there he has had to fight twice since the severe action at Belmont., described by us in our last issue. On Saturday last he attacked the Boers entrenched on "heights" near Graapan, and finally drove them from their positions at the point of the bayonet after the usual preparation by artillery fire,—our troops consisting of the Ninth Brigade, the Mounted Corps, and the Naval Brigade. The descrip- tions of the fight are still meagre, but the Naval Brigade, which it is almost superfluous to add behaved with great gallantry, was terribly cut up. One account says that as they advanced they were received by a sudden fusillade from a position which had been so thoroughly shelled by our guns that it was believed to be clear of the enemy. The Boer losses are stated to have been very heavy—fifty were buried and sixty were too badly wounded to be removed by their friends—but it is not possible to verify this statement.
Oar losses in addition to those in the Naval Brigade were heavy, but the final figures have not been published as we write.
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