_Lieutenant Chrystall--September 7._--“We are getting much cooler weather now--although the desert is not the ideal spot to live in.... The nights are generally good.” _2nd Lieutenant Guy Pedder--September 14._--“Last Monday it was 112° in the shade in our hut, and yesterday it was never higher than 89°, and dropped to 45° at night; everybody turned into bed early, and most people pulled their beds into their tents and then slept in a blanket.... It is much cooler now altogether, and at night one realises how cold it is going to be in six weeks or so....” _Lieutenant Chrystall--September 26._--“We have just got a patent fly-trap in the mess, a Japanese thing which slowly revolves a wooden wheel on which you place sugar and lime-juice: the flies are gradually dropped over into a cage. This is a great invention and catches them by the handful.... Our sick list is diminishing now, I am glad to say, as it does make work so hard for the men, having about five horses to look after. This country is remarkably good for horses, and they do very well except for a sort of biliary fever.” _2nd Lieutenant J. O. P. Clarkson--Amara, Mesopotamia--October 15._--“I’ve been sent up here on a course for a few days. I came up by river. We passed Ezra’s tomb: there is not very much to see really; we were allowed inside, but had to take our shoes off. The boat was rather wide, rather like a Thames paddle-steamer, except they have a second storey to them, and are open all round. They are boats that used to be on the Irawaddi before the War. We churned up the river, with a barge in tow on either side, and in this manner we went right up-stream. We often bumped into the banks of the river, especially at the turns, and there are some very nasty ones. Some were absolutely hairpin turns, and some were lively S-bends, so between the two we had quite a lovely time bumping into the banks. After we had got a short way up the Tigris we went at a walking pace for a whole day--that was in the narrows. There are plenty of Arab villages, and the whole population would turn out offering us chickens and eggs. We had the band of the 104th going up on the same boat, so we had music every evening. The Arabs used to love the band, and would run alongside the boat and jump and dance and shout and clap their hands. One evening when the band was playing we came across a large band of Arabs building a railway or something; anyway when they heard the music they didn’t exactly ‘down tools,’ but picked them up, stopped work, and came rushing up and down and waved their spades, &c., in the air. “We are billeted in an Arab house, and on the other side is the Club, which has been well organised. There are several concert troupes here, and they are very good.”