eight o'clock
From half-past five a tremendous fire had been kept up on the Boer positions . The naval guns were distributing their heavy lyddite shells among the entrenchments distant from three to six miles , and occasionally throwing up a missile on to the summit of the lofty hill known as Spion Kop away to the left front . Not less steadily or effectively the howitzer battery was pounding the Boer position . At eight o'clock the lads reached the top of Mount Alice , and watched with intense interest the picturesque and exciting scene . Here they were far better able than they had been when at Chieveley to see the general aspect of the country . On the right from Grobler 's Kloof hill after hill , separated apparently by shallow depressions , rose , and from the higher points occasional flashes of fire burst out as the guns tried their range against those on Mount Alice , whose heights , however , they failed to reach . Spion Kop stood out steep and threatening , its summit being some hundred feet higher than that of Mount Alice .