"Car-u-m-p" that rattled the windows and
shook the earth down in our dugouts.

I had a very interesting time one day riding to a conference at the
headquarters of General Sir H.S. Rawlinson, Bt. I came cantering along
a road and a sudden turn brought us to a railway crossing. The naval
guns were on an armoured train, the Churchill battery on either side
of this crossing, and the gunners seemed to have wakened up for they
began firing when we were about five hundred yards off. I was riding a
powerful "Cayuse" or western horse, which Captain "Rudd" Marshall,
with rare good judgment, had selected for me at Valcartier. He turned
out to be a splendid charger. Although low set he carried me easily.
He was as wise as an owl and as sure-footed as a cat. It took a good
deal of courage on his part to face the naval battery firing for all
it was worth, the flames from the black fiery muzzles of the guns
almost scorching his hide, but he did it without flinching, although
the jar of the guns almost shook him off his feet several times. I can
quite realize the task of the Noble Six Hundred had in charging the
Russian batteries at Balaclava. I have since seen a moving picture of
this battery in action and recognized the raised gate of the railway
crossing through which we rode, in the centre of the picture, and I
wondered if the battery was "demonstrating" for the benefit of the
moving picture photographer when we were passing through.

In my rides about the country when the battalion was in billets, I
several times ran across "Archibald the Archer," which is the name
given to an anti-air craft gun which is mounted on a motor truck and
is used against the German aeroplanes. "Archibald" is capable of
firing to a great height and very rapidly. He can also move about the
country quite readily. When he starts after a Hun avatick there is
something going on in the sky. I have watched the Germans outwitting
him. Now the aeroplane would dip and glide and circle as the
"Archibald" shells broke about him. Watching with a powerful glass one
could see the airship tremble with the explosion of the shell in its
vicinity. "Archibald" does not always get the German observers, but he
hastens to make it so hot for them that they cannot observe.
Observation cannot be carried on with much accuracy above five
thousand feet, and the ordinary rifle can fire that high. Who named
the anti-air craft gun "Archibald" no one knows, but the Belgians are
credi