d the desired
view, and making my way through the communication trenches to the front
of the guns, I obtained excellent pictures of rapid firing. I had to
keep very low the whole of the time. About forty yards on my right a
small working party of our men had been seen, and they were immediately
"strafed."

During the next few days it rained the whole of the time, and there was
little opportunity for photography; but I obtained some excellent
scenes, showing the conditions under which our men were living and
fighting, and their indomitable cheerfulness.

[Illustration: THE STATE OF THE TRENCHES IN WHICH WE LIVED AND SLEPT (?)
FOR WEEKS ON END DURING THE FIRST AND SECOND WINTER OF WAR]

[Illustration: OUR DUG-OUTS IN THE FRONT LINE AT PICANTIN IN WHICH WE
LIVED, FOUGHT, AND MANY DIED DURING 1914-15, BEFORE THE DAYS OF TIN
HATS]

About this time I arranged to go to the Canadian front trenches, in
their section facing Messines. Arriving at the headquarters at Bailleul,
I met Lieutenant-Colonel ----, and we decided to go straight to the
front line. Leaving in a heavy rain, we splashed our way through one
continuous stream of mud and water. Mile after mile of it. In places the
water covered the entire road, until at times one hardly knew which was
the road and which was the ditch alongside. Several times our car got
ditched. Shell-holes dotted our path everywhere.

Apart from the rotten conditions, the journey proved most interesting;
vehicles of all kinds, from motor-buses to wheelbarrows, were rushing
backwards and forwards, taking up supplies and returning empty.
Occasionally we passed ambulance cars, with some poor fellows inside
suffering from frost-bite, or "trench-foot" as it is generally called
out here. Though their feet were swathed in bandages, and they were
obviously in great pain, they bore up like true Britons. Line after line
of men passed us. Those coming from the trenches were covered in mud
from head to foot, but they were all smiling, and they swung along with
a word and a jest as if they were marching down Piccadilly. Those going
in to take their places: were they gloomy? Not a bit of it! If anything
they were more cheerful, and quipped their mud-covered comrades on their
appearance.

We drew up at a ruined farm-house, which the Colonel told me used to be
their headquarters, until the position was given away by spies. Then the
Germans started shelling it until there was hardly a brick standing.
Luc