A long journey. By the obligingness of the masters, I was enabled to accompany this expedition and to carry forward the mail of the Gjöa. We chose the shortest road across the mountains and reached Fort Yukon on November 20. I had hoped to find a telegraph station there, but no-I had to wander two hundred and fifty miles further to the south, to Eagle City, to find the first telegraph key. I reached here on December 5, after having traversed in all a distance of about seven hundred miles. [Capitulation of Port Arthur agreed upon. Gen. Nogi and Gen. Stössel meet outside Port Arthur after capitulation. Russian garrison leaves Port Arthur. Fall of a quarter of a million tons of cliff near Dover. Triumphal entry of Japanese into Port Arthur.] THE SIEGE OF PORT ARTHUR B (A.D. 1905) E. ST. G. HOLBROOK of the THE first of November the Japanese had captured the whole of the advanced Advance works on the north and northeast fronts, Japanese. and though they failed to capture any of the permanent works, they had brought up their infantry almost to the main line of the Russian defences. The line of investment now extended from Yankiatun on Pigeon Bay on on the west, through Panlungshan to Yeanchang on Takhe Bay on the east, i. e., it had been drawn to within five miles of the harbor. Fock still held Liautieshan on the west, and the northern forts had yet to be won. Nogi now decided that it was necessary, before proceeding further, to possess the Namaokayama ridge and 203 Metre Hill to get a complete command of the restricted anchorage of the harbor, so that the long-range fire, which had hitherto been more or less random, might be more accurately directed. Five heroic attempts were made to capture the East Kikwan Fort, the whole of the northern ditch of which had been filled with flam Success of the Japanese. ing pits. Attack and counter-attack succeeded one another in quick succession, and the crest was repeatedly taken and retaken; finally, however, the Japanese effected a lodgment which they managed to retain. The fighting had been carried on with the greatest fury, and the ramparts were covered with corpses, which were burned and charred past recognition. The attack on Shungshushan had met with some measure of success; the Japanese had captured the places of the adjoining works to the east. The struggle for 203 Metre Hill had been most desperate and had lasted for five days. Two regiments attacked Namaokayama in close column, armed with hand-grenades, and successfully stormed the ridge. The following day 203 Metre Hill was attacked, and a lodgment successfully effected on the southwestern face. On the 29th the Russians made a fierce counter-attack, which was to a great extent successful, but on the 30th the Japanese renewed the attack from the southwest, and, after continuous fighting from daybreak, the opportune arrival of reinforcements at 16 o'clock enabled them to make one final effort, a simultaneous attack being delivered on the southeastern angle; a hand-to-hand combat ensued, with bayonet, clubbed rifle, and handgrenade, and by 20 o'clock the whole fortress had been carried. great fort. The great fort, the capture of which had for Fall of the months been the object of Nogi's main efforts, had at last fallen; the Japanese had penetrated the Russian main line of defences; there was no permanent second line which could be obstinately held after the first had been taken, and the fate of the fortress was practically sealed. "The breach once made, the equilibrium is disturbed, all the rest becomes useless, and the fortress is taken" (Napoleon). General Kondratenko, the famous engineer and skillful leader, whose noble self-denial and single-minded devotion to country had endeared him to all ranks, had perished, killed by a bursting shell. His loss was undoubtedly deeply deplored, but there is no authentic evidence to confirm the statements of the press that his death had any appreciable effect on the conduct of the defence. But the Japanese shells were searching every part of the city and harbor; the garrison was daily becoming weaker in numbers and health; 17,000 were in hospital, and many who could manage to hold a rifle were crippled from scurvy and rheumatism; in short the men were dead beat, they could not move, they slept standing; the commanders could give orders, but the troops were totally incapable of execution; and there is no doubt that ammunition for the guns remaining fit for service had run very short; the besieged Stössel summons a Council of were at their last gasp, and surrender was now only a question of hours. On the 31st of December a mine was exploded under Shungshushan, the parapet was blown up, and, after a fierce assault of one hour, the Japanese captured the entire fort at 10 o'clock. They gallantly rescued a number of the defenders who had been buried under the débris of the rampart. The same evening they destroyed the old Chinese enceinte in front of East Panlungshan; they occupied the fort the following morning. New Year's Day saw the Japanese in possession of Fort "H," and the heights south of Husanyangtan, west of Wangtai. The rapid fall of one work after another proved to the gallant garrison that their heroic resistance had reached its limits and the end had come. Stössel, agreeably to the Russian regulations for a commander in straits, summoned a Council of War, and it was decided to capitulate. Nogi received the Russian proposals at 21 o'clock on the 1st of January, and on the following morning cabled to Tokio that he had accepted the terms. The negotiations between the respective delegates were signed at 12 o'clock on the 20th; they provided that the whole fortress, ships, arms, ammunition, military buildings, material, and other property of the Russian Government should be surrendered, and that |