The drill exercises commenced with the squad formations, and here arose the rather ludicrous situation of N.C.Os. not being able to describe the movements required. This was brought about by the promotion on the Peninsula of men who fulfilled the requirements there and got things done by giving orders in a few terse phrases of their own coining, but had never handled a section on parade or seen inside the cover of a text-book. The position was aggravated by many of the officers being "rusty" themselves and not having books of reference handy. However, the difficulty was got over by forming a class of instruction in each company, and the desired result was obtained in a few days. Five hours daily were given to parades and a half-holiday observed on Wednesdays and Saturdays. [Illustration: THE CAMP AT SARPI, Lemnos Island. _Photo. lent by Lieut. H. V. Woods._] [Illustration: THE SHIPPING IN MUDROS BAY, 1915. _Photo. lent by M. Rene de Marigny, Paris._] Although cold winds blew occasionally, and rain fell intermittently, the climate of the island was not unpleasant at this time of the year. Members of the Battalion, in their leisure hours, visited the neighbouring villages of Portianos, Mudros, and Kondia, although this latter place was subsequently placed out of bounds owing to an outbreak of typhoid fever amongst the inhabitants. At Portianos occurred one of those incidents the like of which is not altogether foreign to army life--even in peace time. A solitary Australian encountered a "Tommy" town picquet commanded by a tyrannical corporal. For a breach of certain orders, of the existence of which he was unaware, the Australian was rather roughly abused and handled by the picquet. Retiring discomfited from the scene he met several of his countrymen. A brief conference was followed by a return to the village and resulted in a very successful "clean-up" of the original aggressors. Some men walked considerable distances and penetrated to the western side where is situated the principal town, Kastro--a place of some 3,000 inhabitants. Here they were able to inspect the Genoese fortress which stands on a rocky peninsula and has an eminence of some 400 feet above the sea. Souvenirs were obtained in the form of small roundshot from the ancient cannon which formerly surmounted the walls. Lemnos has an area of some 175 square miles and, before the war, boasted of a population of some 27,000, of which number 3,000 or 4,000 were Turks, and the remainder Greeks. In ancient times, it was part of the Athenian Empire. The 15th Century saw it occupied by the Turks, in whose possession it remained practically up to the close of the Balkan War of 1913. On the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, the question of ownership was still under consideration by the Great Powers, but early in 1915 the Greek Premier, Venizelos, offered the island to the Allies as an intermediate base for their operations in the Eastern Mediterranean.