Too inexorable was the siege to allow any relaxation in the development of the lines, and every day added to the accumulation of posts and duties which called for the anxious attention and valorous exertions of the engineers. The officers were severely wrought and the casualties among them spoke of their labours and exposure. The sappers likewise were greatly overtasked. Some nights they were in the trenches as long as the darkness lasted, and then only left to repeat their long vigils the ensuing night. Next day, perhaps, they would be permitted to rest for a few hours, when at noon some camp duty, some hutting or draining, the making of fascines, or the execution of a tedious round of et cetera, absorbed the remaining portion of the day. The approaching night or the next, again saw them at work in the far-spreading trenches. For several months this was their constant routine, when, happily, reinforcements arriving, they were, in degree, relieved from an excess of fatigue and watchfulness which, were it not for their hardihood, would have considerably diminished their weak files. It has been remarked that the sappers exhibited less ingenuity and application of resource in their camp arrangements than many regiments in the Crimea. Much skill was shown by some corps in the use of contrivances and rural expedients for rendering their locations comfortable within, and pleasing and picturesque without. All these devices were strangely absent among the sappers. Oddly enough this seems; but it is easily accounted for by the fact, that the men, more constantly at work than other troops, were too tired to seek for superfluous comforts when ordinary ones satisfied their few wants. Indeed they had no leisure to busy themselves about extraneous conveniences.[181]