This increasing numerical weakness of the native battalions threw a greater burden of work and responsibility on the British units, both Regular and Territorial, though even they experienced the greatest difficulty in obtaining the regular supplies from home of that fresh blood which was so earnestly desired. The 1/4th London returned from Ypres in May at a strength well under 300 all ranks, and at no period during the remainder of its attachment to the Indian Corps did its strength approach even 450; in other words, for months on end, in sentry-go, working and carrying parties, and patrols, every man was doing two men's work; and this with a very scanty proportion of rest behind the line. Out of 126 days from the end of May to the beginning of October the 1/4th Londons spent 92 days in trenches, and of the remaining 34 in billets not one was spent beyond the reach of the enemy's guns. With the exception of one tour of duty in the Min House Farm sector the 1/4th Londons spent this summer on the right of the La Bassée Road either in the trenches in front of the Rue du Bois, which included the well-remembered positions of the Orchard Redoubt and Crescent Trench, or in reserve, usually in Lansdowne Post, a large redoubt on Forrester's Lane. The summer months saw very great improvements in the Rue du Bois trenches. The isolated listening posts, like grouse-butts, which had formed the advanced positions in March were now joined into a continuous line of breastwork, connected with the Rue du Bois by numerous communication trenches. Shelters for the trench garrisons were also constructed, but these gave protection against nothing more serious than rain--and not always that. In this waterlogged area the sinking of a deep dugout was an impossibility, and the shelters were in consequence mere "rabbit-hutches" built into the breastwork and covered with corrugated iron and a few sandbags, which imbued the occupants with an entirely unjustified sense of security. At the same time the wire entanglements in No Man's Land were constantly extended and strengthened. With all these defences steadily growing, the duties of the Battalion on working parties, both when occupying the line and when in reserve billets, were onerous and unceasing. Patrolling work by night was vigorously prosecuted as being practically the only available means of fostering the growth of the "offensive spirit." Trench routine in 1915 was marked by a feature which in subsequent years almost entirely vanished--the constant employment of rifle fire. At this period the infantryman had not succumbed to the insensate craze for bombs which later ruined his powers as a rifleman; and every night, in one part of the trenches or another, saw something in the nature of an organised shoot by the infantry, bursts of rapid fire being directed on the enemy's parapet. These practices were of great value, not only in keeping the men skilful with their rifles, but also in maintaining