_Instruction of Troops._--Troops should be practised in the use of the pick and shovel, until they can excavate without difficulty the tasks mentioned below. Men unaccustomed to digging should, if possible, be trained at first in sand or very light soil, until they are accustomed to handling the shovel. When the troops practise entrenching, the task set them should require not less than four hours’ actual work, according to the nature of the soil (_M.M.E._, Section IV). It will be well to arrange for a portion of the working party with a cart to draw the tools and convey them to the site of the trenches, so that no time may be lost in beginning work. _Tools._--1. Each man will usually require a pick and a shovel, but it may sometimes be desirable to allot two men to each task, in which case the front rank man will carry the pick and the rear rank man the shovel. 2. The tools will, as a rule, be placed in heaps on the ground, picks in one heap, shovels in another. The working party, with arms slung, will pass between the heaps in single file, each man taking a pick in his left hand and a shovel in his right as he passes the heaps. Tools should be carried at the trail, point of the pick down, and the hollow of the shovel towards the thigh. 3. It is important that soldiers should be taught to handle their tools without noise. In the event of a working party turning into file (or about), the handles of the tools will before turning be brought into a vertical position by lowering the iron part of the pick, and raising the iron part of the shovel, resuming the trail when the turn is complete. When marching in file, the handles will incline outwards. 4. _Extension._--Working parties will be extended by one of the following methods:-- (i) The party will be extended to such interval as may be required, about 12 paces in rear of the proposed trench. It will then be advanced and halted, while an officer paces along the front, halting at the limit of each man’s task. (ii) The party will be brought up about 3 paces in rear of one of the flanks of the proposed trench in file or single file, according as one or two men are allotted to each task. An officer will pace along the front, halting at the limit of each task, the party moving off at the same time and wheeling to the right or left, the men forming on the alignment in succession in extended order by file, or single file, as ordered. This method is especially suitable to night work.[7] (iii) The right or left of each task will be marked by driving in the pick according as the extension is from the right or left. The shovel will be placed on the ground at right angles to the pick (blade to the left). Each task will be “spitlocked,” _i.e._, marked out by the pick, as soon as the directing officer has fixed the outer limit of the task.