In a sense the war was always a mounted war, because the Boers were all mounted. By tradition and choice they carried no steel weapon. Apart from a small but very efficient artillery6 they relied on the rifle, in the use of which they were highly proficient7, and on the horse. They were, in short, mounted riflemen. In that character they did, to the best of their ability, all the work allotted8 in our own army to Infantry9, Mounted Infantry, Mounted 47Rifles, and Cavalry10. This must constantly be borne in mind when we compare them with our own categories of troops, either in numbers or in efficiency. We cannot, for example, in comparing them to our regular Cavalry, lay stress on their numerical superiority over the latter arm, considered by itself. To make the comparison pertinent11 we must throw into our scale the whole of our Infantry, Mounted Infantry, and irregular horsemen, who supplemented the regular Cavalry in the performance of those functions which the Boers united in a single class of troops. The false basis of comparison constantly appears in criticism of the war, even professional criticism.
The Boers had very few regular troops, and what they had were mainly Artillery, the rest permanent police of a highly efficient quality. Their army was a national militia12, organized on a territorial13 system admirably adapted for local warfare14, but for united action on the grand scale possessing grave defects. In combat, individual skill and intelligence were remarkably15 high, the hunting and tracking instinct, taking military shape in the skirmishing and scouting16 instinct, being well developed. The habit of riding long distances over a thinly-peopled pastoral country, on short commons, and in all weathers, bore military fruit in endurance and in a skill in the care of horses which was of incalculable value to them. Without any stereotyped17 system of tactics or formations, there was a generally diffused18 common sense as to what to do and how to do it in any given military conditions of a tactical character, a flair19 for opportunities and dangers, an eye for ground, and above all an enormous belief, founded on knowledge and practice, in the efficacy of the rifle, especially in defence, and especially when the rifle was reinforced by the spade. Born shots and stalkers, they had also a natural genius for practical field entrenchment20, a valuable gift in itself, but one which, in conjunction 48with moral causes, reacted unfavourably at first on their offensive impulse.
Nor, in the early part of the campaign, did the high potential mobility21 given to them by their horses act as compensation for this defect. Exactly how far they lacked offensive impulse is a point exceedingly difficult to determine, because it is complicated by their great numerical inferiority. At only two of the big actions of the regular war, the first and third, Talana and the battle of Ladysmith, had they as much as a numerical equality. They were greatly outnumbered in the rest of the Natal22 campaign, while in our central advance to Bloemfontein and Pretoria, and on to Komati Poort, their strength in action was rarely as much as a third of ours, often a quarter, and sometimes as low as a fifth. In guns we always had an enormous preponderance. Still, in consideration of their high skill as riflemen, we may certainly say that at first they were deficient23 in offensive impetus24, and missed opportunities of victory. Siege-work particularly had a very bad effect on them. In other field-work they seem to have regarded the horse—or rather the pony—as a necessary and prosaic25 vehicle, without which life on the veld under any circumstances whatever, peaceful or warlike, would have been inconceivable. He was a commonplace means of transport rather than a direct source of tactical, or even of strategical, enterprise. In the tactical sphere, this failure to derive26 from the horse an aggressive ardour analogous27 in kind to the “Cavalry spirit” was not due to any embarrassment28 felt in disposing of led horses during the dismounted phases of a fight, for they were wonderfully expert in this important matter; nor, certainly, as later experience proved, was it due to the lack of a steel weapon, which would have been alien to and destructive of their peculiar29 tactics. The failure was due partly to an innate30 affection for stalking and entrenchments, to 49a wholesome31 fear of the rifle, corresponding to an equally wholesome reliance upon it, and in some degree to a mere32 misapprehension of the physical risks involved. It was connected, too, with a rooted aversion to straying far from their slow and cumbrous transport waggons33, concern for whose safety was an obsession34 in the mind of each individual burgher, since they were private, not public, property. But there was a graver obstacle than all these, indiscipline, unfitness for that swift and sure collective action without which no troops can attain35 a high degree of aggressive mobility.
A tactical inertia36, out of all proportion to their real mobile power, was only one symptom of a malady37 which infected the whole Boer organization, military and national. Indiscipline in one form or another paralyzed strategy, poisoned the springs of enterprise, set the man above the corps38 and the province above the State. It promoted selfishness, vacillation39, and, in every commando in the field, a habit of desertion, for the most part temporary, but none the less paralyzing. If in all this there was a good deal of mere child-like levity40, a tendency to regard war rather as a series of big picnics than as a sustained national effort, the moral evil was none the less far-reaching, and, so far as the integrity of the two Republics was concerned, mortal.
At this great crisis no deep common patriotism41 united the Boers. Their national spirit had not, in the truest sense, come into being. It was born later under new leaders and in the hour of disaster.
These phenomena42 are familiar in the struggle of primitive43 pastoral races against powerful nations. I only draw attention to them in order to link my own special topic with the wider moral study of which it forms an inseparable part. The Boers, as mounted riflemen, cannot be considered apart from the Boers as citizens of two States fighting for political independence, and it will be 50found that the vivification of their civic44 patriotism corresponded exactly with the vivification of their mounted tactics. Unhappily, the study of these tactics has generally broken off precisely45 at the point at which they begin to become most interesting—that is, at the turning-point between Boer despair and Boer hope; and broken off merely because that hope, however stimulating46 to action in the field, was, in respect of its major objects, illusory.
It is a commonplace that both the merits and defects of the British regular army, at the time when war was declared, were diametrically opposite to those of the Boer militias47. Imperial purpose was vigorous and sustained; but the power of carrying out that purpose, even with vastly superior resources in men, money, and material, was disproportionately weak. Discipline was high, individual skill and intelligence, especially in the use of the rifle, relatively48 low. Excessive precision and formalism, the product of long years of peace, characterized the drill and man?uvre of all arms alike. Of the Artillery, which was by no means unaffected, I need say nothing here. The Infantry, by comparison with the Boers, may be said to have been wholly ignorant of the immense power of the modern rifle in modifying formal tactics and in exacting50 fieldcraft and loose, flexible extensions. Marksmanship was poor, the stalking instinct scarcely existed, and the art of field-entrenchment was in a rudimentary stage. On the other hand, disciplined valour and self-sacrifice, in a degree unknown as yet to the Boers, offered substantial compensation for these serious defects.
I pass to the Cavalry, the arm with which we are more immediately concerned. The “Cavalry spirit,” when the war began, was essentially51 the spirit described in the last chapter—the spirit, that is, of fighting on horseback with a steel weapon. It was from this source that they were 51taught to draw their inspiration for the great Cavalry virtues52 which may all be summed up in the one word “dash.” The shock charge, founded on high speed and knee-to-knee cohesion53, was the supreme54 manifestation55 of this spirit, the end to which all training led, and on which all man?uvre was based. Reconnaissance and scouting nominally56 held a high place in the scheme of education, but were in fact seriously prejudiced by the excessive regard paid to the exactitude and precision of movements in mass, which were to prove impracticable in the face of the modern rifle. Individual training inevitably57 suffered. If fire-power in the enemy, as a hindrance58 to mass and shock, was under-estimated, fire-power as an auxiliary59 to the sword or lance was almost ignored. In the current “Drill-Book” (1898), out of 450 pages, five were devoted60 to “Dismounted Service,” as compared with twelve for “Ceremonial Escorts.” Fire-action was treated as abnormal, and expressly contrasted with “normal mounted action.” An inferior firearm, the short carbine, was carried, but on the saddle, not, as it should be, on the back, and was held in low esteem61 as essentially a weapon of defence, in contradistinction to the steel, which is purely62 a weapon of offence. The men, naturally enough, were poor shots and unaccustomed to skirmishing. Their grand r?le was on horseback, not on foot. Fire-tactics signified to them “dismounted tactics” in the most sterile63 sense of the term—tactics, that is, devoid64 of aggressive mobility. Note the interesting difference between this view and the original Boer view. The Boers, too, may also be said to have regarded fire-tactics as “dismounted tactics,” but only in this limited sense, that as yet they had scarcely begun to reinforce the aggressive power of the rifle with the aggressive mobility of the horse. In the minds of the Cavalry the horse and the steel weapon were joint65 and inseparable ingredients of aggressive tactical mobility. If we regard the horse 52in isolation66 as a physical factor in combat, the Boers (following the formula suggested in Chapter II.) overestimated67 his vulnerability and neglected his mobility. The Cavalry did the opposite.
The standard of military education among officers, as throughout the greater part of the army, was not high enough. If Bernhardi had written “Cavalry in Future Wars” one year earlier, and had excited the interest he has since excited, the difference might have been enormous, even if his fallacies as well as his truths had been embraced. As it was, the historical outlook was imitative of the Continental68 methods of the sixties and seventies, which in their turn were imitative of still more antiquated69 methods. The really great and stimulating Anglo-Saxon precedent70, the American Civil War, had had scarcely any effect on Cavalry practice in this country, partly from inattention, partly perhaps from the same mistaken impression which pervaded71 the German and French schools, and was so soon to be shattered to pieces by our own experience, that the methods of self-made volunteer troops afford little or no instruction to regulars.
It is necessary to add that these observations are general. In every arm there always have been and always will be differences between different units, the consequence almost entirely72 of different degrees of ability and energy in the officers, and, above all, in the commanding officer. In the case of the Cavalry, methods being standardized73 throughout, the important question was, when and in what volume would come the fresh stream of initiative imperatively74 required? Very naturally, but most unfortunately (for in regular corps influence from the top downwards75 is of vital consequence), the senior men were the most conservative of all. The hope lay mainly in junior men. How it materialized we shall see. In the meantime ardour was universal, and the prime soldierly qualities of physical courage, discipline, 53and endurance were, throughout all ranks of the Cavalry, as in all branches of the service, at a high level.
The Mounted Infantry was a comparatively young, inadequately76 recognized force, with few war traditions. Trained by able and intelligent officers, themselves enthusiasts77 for the rifle, the force was eager to gain distinction in the field, and to show that the rifle and the horse could be vigorously and effectively combined. But the Cavalry theory, modified in practice, undisputed in principle, hung heavy over its prospects79. The force was formed by abstractions from Infantry regiments81—a radically82 false system; it was taught deliberately83 that its functions must, in the nature of things, be wholly different from and subordinate to those of Cavalry; that reconnaissance, except for its own protection, was outside its sphere; and that there was one function, the “charge”—the noblest ideal of horsemen—to which it could never aspire84. In so far as the charge implied “shock” in its true sense of the physical impact of one serried85 mass upon another serried mass, no fault could be found with this restrictions86. But, as I have suggested, to mounted riflemen who realize their full potentialities, the charge implies other things than shock. It denotes the culmination87 of aggressive mobility. Aggressive mobility, therefore, overclouded by this exterior88 motive89 of unattainable shock, was not before the war the supreme ideal which it should have been, and could have been, to the Mounted Infantry. Could have been, that is, if the magnitude of the task involved in the education of riflemen for mounted work, even with the limited aims in view, had been realized. Infantry soldiers, with all the defects as well as all the virtues of Infantry training, thoroughly91 imbued92 with the instinct for rigid93 formations, and at first unable to ride, were the raw material, and a few months’ exercise with the horse was considered sufficient to convert them into mounted riflemen. The 54force, in short, as it entered the field, represented, both in organization and training, one of those indefensible compromises between foot-soldiers and horse-soldiers which will continue to be evolved as long as ideas are confused by the belief that the steel weapon is, and must be, the dominant94 weapon for horsemen. Happily for the Mounted Infantry, war proved to be a great clarifier of ideas.
From the regular mounted troops of the home country we pass to that great throng95 of volunteers—an army in itself—which, as the war progressed, poured in ever-increasing volume into South Africa from every part of the Queen’s dominions96, or were raised within the borders of South Africa itself. Known by a bewildering variety of names—Yeomanry, Sharp-shooters, Horse, Light Horse, Mounted Infantry, Mounted Rifles, Scouts97, Borderers, Carbineers, Guides, and even Dragoons and Lancers—they all in fact belonged to one distinct type, that of the mounted rifleman. A small fraction carried steel weapons at the outset, but none were seriously trained to shock; all relied on the rifle in conjunction with the horse.
Whether, when they first took the field, the minds of these men (regarded in the mass) were affected49 by a recognition, conscious or subconscious98, of a higher power known as shock transcending99 the humbler functions of the rifle, and vested only in professional troops armed with steel weapons, it is exceedingly difficult to say. At first probably such a feeling had a strong, if unrecognized, effect on the outlook of the mounted volunteers from the home country, as it certainly affected that of the professional Mounted Infantry. The old territorial Yeomanry force, at the time of the outbreak of war, did in fact carry a steel weapon, and the new Yeomanry, improvised100 for the war, though they came mainly from totally different classes from the old, and had little in common with them but the name, could not be free from 55the associations linked with the sword. To the Colonials, especially the South Africans, who were deeply imbued with the Boer belief in the rifle, the arme blanche was probably little more than a race tradition, exercising, perhaps, a sort of dim influence which they could not have explained in words, but not consciously brought into line with any practical scheme of mounted duties. The established volunteer corps, from which the first Colonial mounted troops were derived102, whether inside or outside South Africa, had been designed for local defence, not for Imperial co-operation. By a wise choice, for which we cannot be too thankful, they had been trained, largely through the aid of Imperial officers, almost entirely as mounted riflemen, without any explicit103 understanding that they were to do functions subordinate or ancillary104 to those of steel-armed professional Cavalry. As to aggressive mobility, that was for them simply a question of fighting efficiency and discipline, points in which they could not have been expected to reach the standard attainable90 in permanent professional organizations.
In respect of these two points, fighting efficiency and discipline, all writers have felt the difficulty of forming any general appreciation105 of the irregular mounted troops, so heterogeneous106 was their composition, so wide the variations of quality between contingents107 sent at different times from the same source, so distractingly complicated the vicissitudes108 both of name and composition through which many of the corps went. It is enough for my purpose at this moment to note, first, that all were enlisted109 originally for limited terms, and, second, that the average excellence110 of the personnel was highest at the beginning, and underwent a distinct decline as the war progressed. The decline set in just when an opposite tendency was beginning to become visible among the Boers, not in their case connected with reinforcements, for they had none, but through a regeneration of existing elements. These 56facts have a most important bearing on the development of mounted tactics.
These general observations on the volunteer mounted troops of the Empire necessarily carry us beyond the actual military situation at the outbreak of war. The Yeomanry and the vast majority of oversea organizations had not been heard of then. So complete was the confidence of the military authorities in the regular home troops that it was only under strong governmental pressure that small detachments from the self-governing colonies of Australasia and Canada were permitted to join the flag, and of these, in compliance111 with an intimation that Infantry would be preferred, only 775 officers and men, coming from Queensland, New South Wales, New Zealand, and Victoria, were mounted. Of the British Colonies in South Africa, Cape112 Colony had a normal volunteer force of about 7,000, but mainly composed of Infantry, together with two permanent mounted corps, the Cape Mounted Rifles and the Cape Mounted Police, of whom about 1,000 men in all were available for the war. Far away to the north two new volunteer regiments of mounted riflemen, the Protectorate Regiment80 and the Rhodesia Regiment, were rapidly recruited and trained in the two months preceding hostilities. Natal, by the expansion ad hoc of its normal volunteer force, was able to put a total of rather more than 1,000 mounted men into the field, together with 300 more drawn113 from the permanent Natal Mounted Police.
The Imperial Light Horse, with an original strength of 500, were ready to take the field at once. Formed and equipped in Natal, but recruited from among the best elements of the Uitlander population of the Rand, this famous corps reached at once a high pitch of military efficiency. Their Colonel was a brave and able Cavalry officer, who understood his men and the work they would have to do, and had made no attempt to impose upon 57them stereotyped Cavalry methods. Their strength lay in the rifle and in the horse.
Such were the mounted troops of the two belligerent114 races. All were new to civilized115 warfare on the scale now in prospect78. All, with the single exception of the British Cavalry, may be truly described as irregulars, dependent mainly on their own native wit for the evolution of a good system of fighting. Behind a great deal of over-confidence on both sides, due to reciprocal misunderstandings of the lessons of the Majuba campaign, there were not a few reservations and much curiosity as to the relative value of weapons, as of many other things.
Before coming to actual hostilities I must deal briefly116, even at this early stage, with a question which must occupy our minds continually in studying the mounted operations of the war, for upon the final answer to it hangs the verdict upon the weapons. Were the conditions “abnormal”? Were they abnormal—that is, in the sense that they did not give a fair opportunity for testing the relative merits of the steel weapon and the rifle? That is the narrow question before us, and I beg the reader to concentrate upon it, without allowing his mind to be influenced by the mass of irrelevant117 considerations which necessarily surround it. There need be no mistake as to what is meant by “normal” in the minds of the arme blanche school. Their normal war is a war against one of the great Continental armies, whose cavalries118 are penetrated119 with an even stronger belief in the arme blanche than our own. This is the special eventuality for which we are supposed to prepare. Without pausing to discuss the soundness of this view of “normality,” or the logical consequences to which it would necessarily lead us, let us accept the chosen ground of argument. Let us constantly be asking ourselves why this or that set of conditions should not be reproduced in such a war, and if they were so reproduced, which type 58of Cavalry—that relying primarily on the “terror of cold steel,” or that relying primarily on the rifle—would do the best. In these analogies let us picture Cavalry in all their various functions, strategical or tactical, offensive or protective, independent or in conjunction with other arms, and in collision either with Cavalry, Infantry, or Artillery, fixing our thought resolutely120 at every step on the weapon and the tactics associated with it, and refusing to be led astray by circumstances which have no direct or indirect bearing on these points. It is by no means an easy task. Every war is abnormal in the sense that it differs from every other war. The special peculiarities121 of the Boer War are on the surface, patent to the most careless observer. But do they affect the point at issue?
At present I only wish to dwell on two broad considerations—personnel and terrain122.
Humanly speaking, the Boers were very like ourselves. They were a white race, with white ideals, of European descent, allied123 to us by blood, and allied, if we are thinking of the German parallel, with the Germans. Their religion was our religion. Their democratic instincts were as strong as our own, and stronger than those of the Germans. In spite of a multitude of points of contrast, economic and social, there was in them no fundamental abnormality of race or custom which would justify124, prima facie, the conclusion that their methods of warfare could never be, and should never be, our methods of warfare. They were neither savages125 on the one hand, nor Martians on the other.
The ground on which the war was fought was only abnormal in the sense that it was abnormally favourable126 to the arme blanche. As I pointed127 out in the last chapter, one of the four great conditions precedent to shock is open country. From a military point of view, no country in the world is more favourable to the arme blanche than South Africa. Whether in regard to natural topography, 59or topography as modified by man, it is incomparably more “open” than any possible European theatre of war, including Great Britain, the least open of all. There are mountain ranges, one of which became the scene of Buller’s long Natal campaign, and rugged128 hilly districts, as there are in Europe; but the predominant characteristic is that of vast, undulating plains, varied129 by sharper inequities, by ridges130, isolated131 heights, and minor132 ranges of hills. These features frequently became centres of conflict, simply because they supplied strong positions. Of features due to the presence of man or under the control of man, of woodlands, gardens, orchards133, fences, walls, ditches, parks, enclosures, of towns and the intricate semi-urban environment of towns, of all the thousand-and-one obstructions134 to free mounted movement which characterize populous135, highly-developed countries, South Africa may be said to have been almost destitute136. The barbed-wire boundary fences of the very extensive farms into which the country was divided were the commonest artificial obstacles.
So much for the tactical opportunities of the arme blanche. By an unavoidable paradox137, ground tactically fit for that weapon is the least favourable for scouting and reconnaissance. It is a pity that the words which now head chapter vi. of “Cavalry Training” were not there in 1899. “The increased power of modern firearms and the introduction of smokeless powder have made it both more difficult and more necessary to obtain information.” In that open country and with their long rifles, the Boers outmatched our Cavalry scouts from the first. As regards local intelligence, Natal and Cape Colony, the scenes of the most critical fighting, were British territory, where there was an abundance of skilled aid. It is true that in parts of Cape Colony there was a large, and in Natal a small, unfriendly Dutch element. But that is a more favourable state of things than a population entirely 60hostile. And when, later, the task of repulse138 ended, and that of invasion began, and we were faced with that very problem of a hostile population, even then it was never wholly hostile. Besides a sprinkling of farmers British by birth or sympathy, beside the lower class of Dutch bywoner, which from the first showed signs of pliancy139, and as time went on supplied us with an increasing number of spies, besides the native races from whom we ultimately obtained far more aid than the Boers, we derived enormous advantage from the large urban British element in the Transvaal, which gave us intelligence officers like Woolls-Sampson, and fine corps like the Imperial Light Horse, composed of men who knew the language and customs of the country. But supposing every soul in the country, white and native, man, woman, and child, had been bitterly hostile from the first, that surely is not to be regarded as an abnormal circumstance in war. On the contrary, it is one of the very difficulties which Cavalry exist to overcome. Bernhardi, it is interesting to note, lays special emphasis on this difficulty as one likely to prove increasingly serious in future wars.[16] After all, the object of war is to conquer, and people resent being conquered.
For my facts I shall rely mainly on our own “Official History,” so far as it has progressed, and on the Times History, which is already complete. Though they often differ in criticism, these two histories tally101 with remarkable140 closeness in matters of fact. The official volume dealing141 with the greater part of the guerilla war is not yet published.
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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sporadic
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| adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular；分散的 | |
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hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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exhortation
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| n.劝告，规劝 | |
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authoritative
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| adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的 | |
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artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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proficient
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| adj.熟练的，精通的；n.能手，专家 | |
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allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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pertinent
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| adj.恰当的；贴切的；中肯的；有关的；相干的 | |
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militia
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| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
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territorial
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| adj.领土的，领地的 | |
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warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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scouting
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| 守候活动，童子军的活动 | |
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stereotyped
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| adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的 | |
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diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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flair
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| n.天赋，本领，才华；洞察力 | |
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entrenchment
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| n.壕沟，防御设施 | |
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mobility
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| n.可动性，变动性，情感不定 | |
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natal
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| adj.出生的，先天的 | |
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deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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impetus
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| n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力 | |
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prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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analogous
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| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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waggons
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| 四轮的运货马车( waggon的名词复数 )； 铁路货车； 小手推车 | |
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obsession
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| n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感) | |
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attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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inertia
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| adj.惰性，惯性，懒惰，迟钝 | |
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malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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vacillation
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| n.动摇；忧柔寡断 | |
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40
levity
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| n.轻率，轻浮，不稳定，多变 | |
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41
patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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42
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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43
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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44
civic
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| adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的 | |
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45
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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46
stimulating
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| adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的 | |
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47
militias
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| n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 ) | |
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48
relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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49
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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50
exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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51
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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52
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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53
cohesion
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| n.团结，凝结力 | |
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54
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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55
manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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56
nominally
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| 在名义上，表面地； 应名儿 | |
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57
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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58
hindrance
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| n.妨碍，障碍 | |
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59
auxiliary
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| adj.辅助的，备用的 | |
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60
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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61
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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62
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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63
sterile
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| adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的 | |
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64
devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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65
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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66
isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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67
overestimated
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| 对（数量）估计过高，对…作过高的评价( overestimate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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68
continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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69
antiquated
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| adj.陈旧的，过时的 | |
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70
precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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71
pervaded
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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72
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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73
standardized
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| adj.标准化的 | |
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74
imperatively
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| adv.命令式地 | |
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75
downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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76
inadequately
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| ad.不够地；不够好地 | |
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77
enthusiasts
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| n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 ) | |
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78
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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79
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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80
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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81
regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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82
radically
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| ad.根本地，本质地 | |
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83
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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84
aspire
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| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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85
serried
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| adj.拥挤的；密集的 | |
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86
restrictions
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| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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87
culmination
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| n.顶点；最高潮 | |
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88
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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89
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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90
attainable
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| a.可达到的，可获得的 | |
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91
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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92
imbued
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| v.使（某人/某事）充满或激起（感情等）( imbue的过去式和过去分词 )；使充满；灌输；激发（强烈感情或品质等） | |
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93
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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94
dominant
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| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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95
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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96
dominions
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| 统治权( dominion的名词复数 )； 领土； 疆土； 版图 | |
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97
scouts
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| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
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98
subconscious
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| n./adj.潜意识(的)，下意识(的) | |
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99
transcending
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| 超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的现在分词 )； 优于或胜过… | |
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100
improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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101
tally
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| n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致 | |
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102
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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103
explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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104
ancillary
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| adj.附属的，从属的 | |
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105
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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106
heterogeneous
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| adj.庞杂的；异类的 | |
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107
contingents
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| （志趣相投、尤指来自同一地方的）一组与会者( contingent的名词复数 )； 代表团； （军队的）分遣队； 小分队 | |
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108
vicissitudes
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| n.变迁，世事变化；变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 )；盛衰兴废 | |
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109
enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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110
excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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111
compliance
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| n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从 | |
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112
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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113
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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114
belligerent
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| adj.好战的，挑起战争的；n.交战国，交战者 | |
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115
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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116
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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117
irrelevant
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| adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的 | |
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118
cavalries
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| 骑兵（cavalry的复数形式） | |
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119
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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120
resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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121
peculiarities
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| n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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122
terrain
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| n.地面，地形，地图 | |
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123
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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124
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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125
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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126
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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127
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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128
rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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129
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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130
ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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131
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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132
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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133
orchards
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| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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134
obstructions
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| n.障碍物( obstruction的名词复数 )；阻碍物；阻碍；阻挠 | |
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135
populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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136
destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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137
paradox
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| n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物) | |
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138
repulse
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| n.击退，拒绝；vt.逐退，击退，拒绝 | |
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139
pliancy
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| n.柔软，柔顺 | |
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140
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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141
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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