ers and trogdolites a thousand centuries ago.
They wind in every direction and are all good. The main roads are
covered with heavy square stones, blocks. Once in a hundred years the
Flemish farmer does his road work by turning these blocks over. They
are called pave roads. All the other roads are covered with macadam
made out of black whinstone that is as hard as iron. This will explain
why the towns of Armentieres, Fleurbaix, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers,
Estaires and Bac St. Maur are all within a radius of five miles of
each other. Aubers is a short mile from Neuve Chapelle, while
Fromelles is only a mile or so from Aubers. The whole British line
from Ypres to La Bassee is not as far as from Toronto to Hamilton, not
forty miles.

Our brigade had two battalions in the trenches, the Royal Montreal
Regiment under Lieut.-Colonel Meighen and the Canadian Scottish under
Lieut.-Colonel Leckie. The Royal Highlanders of Canada were on the
left of our brigade and we were on the right, and our two battalions
were available as reserves for the British troops on our right that
were going into action. There was one British Brigade between us and
the section of the line that was to attack. We were not to move till
this brigade moved. Reveille was sounded early and the battalion fell
in by companies shortly after seven. We were ordered to march down to
the Rue De Bois and get out of sight among some farm houses and keep
out of sight, which we did. Some of the companies crossed the fields
scouting along the ditches and hedges. A company marched by the road
Croix Blanche. We found billets at farm houses a few hundred yards
east of the corner of the Rue De Bois and the Fromelles road. Across
the road from where I was quartered there was a big straw stack which
the artillery were using for observation purposes. Behind it Captain
Pope of the Third Brigade Staff had established a telephone office in
a couple of wheat sheaves of last year's crop. A cup of bad black
coffee and a hard boiled egg provided me with breakfast. The men made
tea and had plenty of food with them. In an emergency of this kind I
saw that they had two day's rations in their haversacks. They also
carried a hundred and fifty rounds of ammunition in their pouches and
two bandoliers, each of fifty rounds, slung over their shoulders. They
would not be short of grub or ammunition if it could be helped. After
I had finished the coffee I surveyed the barn and found a spot where a
h