ress, and had been very
popular, with officers and men alike.

It was a sad day for us, that twenty-seventh of November, 1915, and
yet it was one of those days when "there is nothing to report from the
Ypres salient."

[Illustration: Canadian Machine Gun Section Getting Their Guns Into
Action.]

Next day I asked and received permission to go back a few miles to a
sniper's school, where I got a specially targeted rifle, equipped
with the finest kind of a telescopic sight. I only remained long
enough to sight it in and get it "zeroed" and was back again in front
that same night.

"Zeroing" a rifle is the process of testing it out on a range at known
distances and setting the sights to suit one's individual
peculiarities of aiming. Having once established the "zero" the
marksman can always figure the necessary alterations for other ranges
or changed conditions of wind and light.

From that time on, I "lived" in Sniper's Barn. It made no difference
whether the battalion was in the front line or in billets, I was there
for a purpose and I accomplished it. When the guns were in the front
or in support, we had one mounted in the hedge and kept the rifle
handy. Bouchard, with a large telescope, and I with my binoculars,
scanned everything along the enemy's front and behind his lines. We
knew the ranges, to an inch. If one or two men showed, I used the
rifle; if a larger number, the machine gun.

Prior to this time, during all the very bad weather, we had ample
opportunities to shoot individual Germans from our Sniper's Barn
position but had refrained because our own men were also necessarily
exposing themselves daily, and to have started a sniping campaign
would have done us no particular good and would certainly have
resulted in additional deaths on our side. It seems that the troops
opposed to us up to this time had been Saxons who were quite well
satisfied to leave us alone provided we would do the same by them. Of
course we did shoot them occasionally when they became too careless
and exposed themselves in groups, but that was perfectly legitimate
machine-gun work and taught them a well-needed lesson. Now, however, a
different breed of Huns had come in and they had started the dirty
work. They were Bavarians alternating with Marines, and we soon
learned that for genuine low-down cussedness the Marine had them all
beaten, although the Bavarians and Prussians were pretty bad.

When we first began on them it was no u