( 3H )

from Badajos , for the attack of the forts at Sala-manca. Timber of sufficient dimensions to ef-fect this could not easily be procured; and, in-deed, any application of that material to makegood such a fracture, would have been extremelydifficult, and required much labour, to be per-formed on the spot, in fashioning, framing, andsetting-up the work; and which, consequently,would have given warning to the enemy, beforethe campaign opened, of some important move-ment in that quarter being intended.

To obviate these difficulties and objections,the officer sent in April 1812 to make prepa-rations for this operation*—a man of fertile ge-nius and great practical knowledge—happily de-vised an application of cordage, which might beprepared secretly, and even in privacy, at anydistance from the place at which it was to beused, and easily transported thither, entire, andspeedily stretched across, whenever it might berequired. The formidable impediment was verynearly 100 feet wide. The materials of whichthis extraordinary work was constructed wereas follows:—

(1) 4 beams of poplar, each 80 feet long, 12 by

8 inches.

(2) 8 ditto, each 20 feet long, 6 inches square.

* The late Lieut.-Colonel Sturgeon, of the Royal Staff Corps.

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