footbridge over the Steenbeck to be negotiated, and the various side tracks running off from the main one confused the guides. Two companies were taken round by an alternative way along the remains of the road from Koekuit to Les Cinque Chemins, our destination. This proved our salvation, as on reaching the end of Clarges Street, near Les Cinque Chemins, the leading guide of the two companies ahead of Battalion Headquarters turned to the right along this same road, and promptly collided with "D" and "A" Companies coming up. But for this accident "B" and "C" with Battalion Headquarters, after many hours marching, might have arrived at Canal Bank Camp once more. The difficulty of finding one's way in the dark in these miserable districts baffles description. All landmarks are obliterated, and main roads are only recognizable under the most favourable conditions. Tracks lead off from the main way at frequent intervals, and there is nothing to show which is the correct way. The one thing usually certain is that one leads nowhere and the other the way you want to go. To discover which is which is rather a lengthy and tiresome business. The sector was on the whole probably the most remarkable one ever held by the battalion. Representing as it did the high-water mark of a push, it was rather curiously organized. The front line (held by "D" Company) consisted of a number of shell-hole positions, movement along which was impossible in daylight, and three posts in the Houthulst Forest. These latter, as will appear, were mere wooden barricades of a very rough description and absolutely unbulletproof. No cover of any description, either from the weather or from the enemy, existed in any of these posts. There was one pill-box, Colombo House, in what was practically the front-line, and, as usual, with its door facing the enemy. This acted as a kind of advance headquarters for the front-line company. The next thing in the rear of these scattered posts was a pair of pill-boxes--Ajax House, Battalion Headquarters; and an unnamed one adjoining, which was shared by the front and support company headquarters, "D" and "A" Companies. Ajax House was a magnificent pill-box with a side door; the other one was smaller, and with a door facing the Germans. Behind Battalion Headquarters came the main line of resistance, Posts "D," "E," "H," and "J," small redoubts organized for all-round resistance; while the counter-attack party of two platoons was considerably farther back at Vee Bend. After about an hour's march back along the duck-boards you came to the reserve company at Gruytezeele, Craonne, and Montmirail Farms; while "C" Company were even more distant, at Lapin Farm. As regards the latter, who were in rear of Brigade Headquarters, it was only after great difficulty that any accommodation could be found for them at all, the fact being that we were much stronger than the 7th Buffs, whom we were relieving.