Instruction in sinking shafts and making galleries had already been given by expert miners. A Mining Company was now formed, extra pay being granted to the men, and it was reasonably expected that this would be filled from the many colliers in the Division. A Staff Officer who was wont to boast that experts could be produced for any kind of job, inspected the company and proceeded to question the men. To the first he said— “Well, my man, how do you like your task?” “Oh, it’s not so bad, sir.” “Extra pay all right, eh?” “Yes, but you can’t spend it, sir.” “I suppose the work comes quite naturally to you?” “No, sir, I’m a solicitor’s clerk.” The second man was a music-hall artiste, and the third a barber. Much discouraged, the officer ceased to interrogate. The enemy exploded mines on the 3rd, 15th, 18th, 21st, 22nd and 29th of September, all opposite their trench in front of our right, known as “The Gridiron.” Three of these damaged our parapet, and all caused interference with our field of fire. The repairing of the damage done on September 22 was made possible by the enterprise of bombing parties of the 6th Manchesters under Lieutenant Collier, who kept up a steady hail of bombs from the lip of the crater, where they had little shelter. On the left, at Fusilier Bluff, the Mining Company had got out protective galleries in time to baffle the Turco-German miners. At first our mining policy had been defensive, but on this same day one of our shafts reached the barricade of a favourite Turkish bombing station. A mine was exploded, the barricade levelled, and a crater forty feet in diameter formed. The sky was darkened by the earth thrown up, and men in support and reserve trenches were covered with the falling clods. Brisk rifle fire from the enemy showed that the trenches were thickly occupied at the time, and their losses must have been considerable. A rush was at once made to the crater and a barricade built across it. Captain Cawley, 6th Manchesters, M.P. for Prestwich, was shot at night by a Turkish sniper, when shooting over the parapet with his revolver, and the crater became known as “Cawley’s Crater.” On the 17th of October General Sir Ian Hamilton relinquished the command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force amid universal regret, and left for England. He had won the respect, and indeed the affection, of all ranks of his army, by whom he was regarded as a true friend and comrade, prompt in appreciation and unfailing in sympathy. To General Douglas he wrote: “You and your Division have always been consoling thoughts in the anxious moments we have lived through in common, and I want you to have all the luck in the world.” On Sir Ian’s departure, Lieut.-General Sir William Birdwood assumed temporary command in the peninsula until the arrival of General Sir C. Monro.