his nose into everything, says what he thinks,
whether polite or otherwise, and swears at large. He says that without
a good backing of swears people will never believe you are in earnest.
Only men of blood and iron are of any use at the present moment for
filling our high places.

Pirie was telling us that they had two Australian snipers attached to
the Royals, and one of their own men who had done a good deal of
jungle shooting was an excellent sniper. One night he was out and had
crawled to within 30 yards of the Turks' trenches trying to get as
much information as possible, when lo, and behold! he found by his
watch it was 5.30 and broad daylight. He had fallen asleep. However,
by careful crawling he succeeded in gaining his own lines in safety.
It is always by night these men work, and the Australian snipers get
two days off every week to go to the base for a rest. This time is
usually spent in their going somewhere else to snipe. Fighting to the
Australians is great sport and nothing else.

In the afternoon an East Kent officer paid us a visit. He tells us
that rumours of peace with Turkey are again afloat. We have heard this
sort of stuff before and don't believe it.

_September 2nd._--Agassiz and I had attended the sick of our Brigade
during the day, and spent a quiet time about the dressing station,
gathering enough brambles to make an excellent dish for supper, when
suddenly at 7.30 the scene changed. First two cannon shots, the
well-known signal for a Turkish attack, a short pause then a general
cannonade from the Turks which was fast and furious. I do not suppose
anyone could have guessed they had so many guns in position, but for
half an hour--twenty-three minutes to be exact--they simply deluged
with shrapnel our trenches on the hill on our extreme left (Hizlar
Dagh), and rifle fire from both sides was equally furious. The part of
The Gully we occupy as a dressing station runs north and south, and I
could not have believed it could possibly have been enfiladed, but
bullets, after the first few minutes, got diverted our way, and came
right along our position in a most alarming way. All lay low at once,
except our servant, Wallace, who had just removed our supper things
and was sitting on the edge of a low trench leading into our dug-out
when he called out, "Oh!" I turned round and said, "What's up?" "I am
struck," he said, and fell into my arms. We laid him down on the floor
of the dug-out, and in a f