Such feverish activity is nearly always a sign of irritation on the part of the Dutch, and one can always hope the irritation is due to bad news for them.
I have not heard of any loss in town or camp.

Our guns, with the exception of the howitzers and Major Wing's field guns, which can just reach the new howitzer on Surprise Hill, have hardly replied at all.
The milk question was the most serious of the day.

I saw a herd of thirty-five cows which had only yielded sixteen pints at milking time.
It is now debated whether we shall not have to feed the cows and starve the horses; or kill the thinnest horses and stew them down into broth for the others.

The reports about the condition of Intombi Camp were particularly horrible to-day.

But General Hunter will not allow any one to visit the camp, and it is no good repeating secondhand reports.
_December 27, 1899._ The side of Tunnel Hill, at the angle of the Helpmakaar road, where Liverpools and Gloucesters have suffered in turn, was to-day the scene of an exactly similar disaster to the Devons.
The great Bulwan gun began shelling us later than usual.