On Thursday I went up with an officer observer on a patrol, to look for Huns and gun flashes, etc. We could not see anything above 3,000 feet; so we came down to 2,500 feet and flew up and down the lines--well on this side, though--for a couple of hours. I thus got a splendid view of the trenches on both sides for miles, and it was awfully interesting to see the fields in some places behind our lines, originally green pasture land, now almost blotted out with shell holes and mine craters. There has been a craze here for gardening recently, and people are sowing seeds sent over from England, and building rockeries and what not. A counter-craze of dug-out digging was started by our C.O. so as to provide a place of retreat if over-enthusiastic Huns come over some day to bomb us. The dug-out was almost finished when the rain came and converted it into a swimming-bath. The dug-out mania has now ceased. Thanks for your advice about studying maps. If I carried it out as you suggest in all my spare time, this is something like what my diary would have been for the past week: 3.30 a.m. Wakened for early patrol work. Weather is dud, so study maps until: 8.30 a.m. Breakfast. Raining, so return to room to study maps. 12.30 p.m. Snatch ten minutes for lunch, and get back to maps. 4.30 p.m. Have some tea, having violent argument meanwhile on contoured and uncontoured maps. More study. 8 p.m. Break off map study for dinner; then go to bed and study maps till “lights out.” Here ends another derned dull day. Still I quite understand what prompted your advice. If one does get lost, however, one has only to fly west for a few minutes till one crosses the lines, and then inquire, as we never go far over the lines unless escorted. I have been up two mornings running at 3.30 for work, but the weather has been “dud.” We do not always get early work, of course; we take it in turns. I was up over the lines yesterday about 4,000 feet and they put up a few Archies at me. They were rather close, so I zigzagged to a cooler spot. * * * * * [Sidenote: A Forced Landing.]