ept by turning, many having a sheer, rocky face of 400 or 500 feet.
We know extremely little about what is going on within a few miles of
us. I have seen eleven sour-looking Turks marched in as prisoners
to-day, which shows we are doing something at any rate. Constant fire
goes on, and the ships strike in several times a day for half an hour
or so, but naval guns are not well suited for this work. Down about
Helles--15 miles off--we can hear much booming too.

_August 19th._--Two days ago I spoke about the scrub Ashmead-Bartlett
calls furze. I now find it is almost certainly the plant from which
our briar pipes are made. The stem is slender, but the root expands to
a considerable extent, and I have seen parts of these, which our men
have dug up when clearing the ground, about 4 to 6 inches thick. The
fibres are twisted in all directions, giving the wood the well-known
bird's eye appearance. What is exposed to the weather seems quickly to
darken.

The geology is interesting. I have spoken about the strange weathering
of the rocks at the Beach. All the rock on this point of land dips at
an angle of 45 degrees, and points northwards. I put it all down as
Devonian, it is almost exactly like Hugh Miller's old red sandstone,
as seen in Ross-shire, the matrix of a paler red, but the mass of
water-worn pebbles embedded in it is the same. The matrix contains
lime as is seen in the large amount of calcite that exists. A vein,
perhaps 5 feet thick, of a slatey substance runs across just in front
of us, and contains a well, which is the only sign of fresh water I
have seen so far. The Engineers have sunk a well in a marly part near
this, but the earth they are throwing up is perfectly dry, and they
might as well give it up.

_Later._--Some one now tells me that the rocks are Tertiary and not
Devonian, and that my slatey vein is cobalt. Much of the stone peels
readily into large flat slabs which we find useful in building our
dug-outs.

There was much rifle and big gunfire last night. The ships have
displayed about a normal amount of activity to which the Turk has
replied, but his marksmanship is worse than it was yesterday.

We had rain this morning, which was heavy enough to be disagreeable,
and it was with difficulty we kept ourselves and our belongings dry.
It gives us a foretaste of what to expect soon. But before then we
must get on. About Helles the naval guns are very busy.

This morning we had sixty-nine cases of s