In the prolongation of this range a low ridge covered with brush extends eastward to the Modder, the bed of which thereabout follows for some distance {p.163} a north-east and south-west line.

At the foot of the peak, but some little distance in advance, the Boers had dug a line of trenches, which not only covered the immediate front, but at the eastern end of Magersfontein sweep round the curve of the hill to the north for some hundred yards, and then turned east again, following the bushy ridge to the river.
These dispositions facilitated the passage of troops from one flank to the other under cover, and preserved control of a ford over the Modder behind the line.

The trenches, especially before the peak, were filled with riflemen.

The kopje itself was also manned, but it is allowable to believe that the experience of the war, already illustrated by many encounters, must have persuaded so shrewd a fighter as Cronje of the superior advantage of the trench system.

Before the trenches ran a continuous line of barbed-wire fence.