In this, ten miles west of Colenso, there is a sharp bend at nearly right angles.

There the stream for a stretch of six miles has run south by east, while above it the river bed again, as below, lies east and west, but is excessively tortuous, winding back and forth among hills which on one side or the other come down close to the water's edge.

It was at Trichardt's Drift, about seven miles above--west of--this north and south stretch, that the British army was to make, and did make, its crossing; purposing thereby to turn the {p.251} flanks of the Boer positions, which in a general sense followed the north bank of the Tugela.
The conditions leading to the choice of this point appear to have been as follows.

Eastward of the north and south stretch just specified, and as far as to the Ladysmith railroad, the mountain ranges north of the river are not only high, but wide, broken, and intricate, ending in Grobler's Kloof and the other kopjes mentioned in describing the positions at Colenso.

The reverse slopes of this broken region are full six miles north of the river's course.