We now discovered that we were leaving Flanders again and returning to Armentières, a very unexpected piece of news. We also discovered that we were to go by road, which, in fine cold weather, appeared quite a pleasant prospect. However, a thaw, followed by a frost, rather altered our opinion, and when we moved off at 8.30 a.m. on December 29th from Canada area, close to Proven, we found it almost impossible to stand, and even more impossible to march. We moved off, therefore, with many a slip and fall; but the only serious disaster was an accident to the officers' mess-cart, resulting in a broken shaft and a very long delay to that most valuable portion, from the officers' point of view, of the transport. Our camps, which we did not find without considerable difficulty, were called Poodle and Pitchett, and were both most wretched affairs, with indifferent tents set amid a wilderness of snow. The Medical Officer, Lieutenant Gordon, a newly arrived American, reached the camp in a state of considerable exhaustion. Imagining that he was to ride, he had donned an immense fleece-lined overcoat which reached to his ankles. Riding, of course, was an impossibility, and being somewhat new to marching, he had suffered considerably, but he bore his affliction with the utmost good humour. The next day (December 30th) we moved on again. The weather, from being bright and frosty, was now raw and damp, with a partial thaw. As our road lay over the Mont des Cats and past Meteren, the conditions were particularly trying, and everyone was thoroughly tired when we reached billets at Berthen. Here companies were widely scattered, and the billets of a very varying quality.