ON OUTPOST DUTY. 93 I venture to say that if the workmen had been any others than Guardsmen and Marines, the walls would never have risen so quickly from the ground. As it was, the walls in ten days rose to over five feet high, a marvellous piece of work considering the few men we had, the size of the forts, and the enormous difficulty there was in getting material. All the loose stones in the neighbourhood were collected and built into the walls ; that occupied four days ; for the remainder of the time every stone had to be loosened out of the solid rock with pickaxes and worked with levers, till it could be carried to its proper place. Considering that there were only three pickaxes and two crowbars for each fort, the one measuring roughly 20 yards by 23, the other 30 yards by 15, the amount of work done was something extraordinary.

Outpost duty w ras rather severe, especially at night. Since we were by no means sure that the enemy might not be meditating a night attack on our citl-de-sac, we had to keep many sentries going. Two officers and some sixty-five men were on