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[Page 21]
reminded me very of the land seen about Kosciuscko but the soil is of a clayey and stoney nature.
The days were getting cooler, and the nights were very cold. Some nights, there was a complete silence for a while, with a beautiful moon showing over an apparently peaceful scene, but it was soon rudely shattered by the roar and crash of high explosive shells and bombs, to say nothing of the machine gun and rifle fire. Some days there was practically no shelling, and then came the day that seemed to make up for lost time, when both sides had an artillery duel and the noise was deafening. I have been mixed up in two lots of shrapnel without being injured, and another time the blast from a shell knocked me flat, covering me with dirt and dazing me for a while.
All the transporting was done by mules with Indian drivers; a horse could not do half the work of these hardy animals. It was marvellous to see the different races fighting here, for the Empire; tall Sikhs, Punjabis, Ghurkas, etc. The Ghurkas are a well set race of small stature and have a Mongolian countenance. They are of a genial temperament and are never seen without their knives; the Khukri, which is a peculiar shaped weapon. They are fierce fighters and were much respected by the Turks, and for the Ghurka always wants wanted to bring back the head of his enemy as a trophy of his prowess.