nteered for active service. The armouries
began to hum with activity. In the West it was hard to find
accommodation for the men who came from isolated homesteads and lonely
ranches, some even from the Arctic Circle, to enlist. The West still
continues to supply the bulk of our recruits, due largely to the fact
that the majority are, if not British born, at least the sons of British
fathers, and consequently felt the call more personally than the sons of
families four or five generations in the country. Quebec, from which
province one would expect the most owing to the ties of race and
language with our Allies, has been frankly disappointing, although
certain exclusively French-Canadian battalions have done, and are
continuing to do, as good work as any on the Western front.

A week or two dragged on before the actual order to depart for the big
concentration camps came, and various conjectures were made as to their
location. Petewawa was suggested as one, but given up as too isolated.
Niagara, Barriefield, Three Rivers, and other "annual" sites were other
favourites, but each had some objection, for no concentration such as
thirty thousand men had been held in the history of Canada.

Eventually, however, we learned that one large camp was to be formed at
Val Cartier. Except that Val Cartier was in Quebec, no one knew
anything of this little hamlet.

Orders came thick and fast ordering this equipment to be worn and that
to be left behind. Some days rifles were to be taken and greatcoats left
in stores, and next day the rifles were to be left and greatcoats were
to be taken. The result was that some of the telegrams went astray, and
commanding officers at the last minute ordered what equipment they
thought most suitable to be worn.

The Umpteenth Battalion took down the leather harness that had adorned
its armoury walls for many a year and spent an anxious day fitting it
together, Begbie Lyte and the other officers who had volunteered for the
front flitting from one group of contestants to another.

At last every man had a working knowledge of the fifty odd buckles and a
hazy idea as to where the straps were supposed to cross his chest and
where not. The colonel looked with pride on this difficulty overcome and
said, "Thank Heaven! we will probably get a more modern outfit as soon
as we strike camp." Alas! We buckled and unbuckled those straps and
rolled and unrolled our greatcoats for half a year before the new kit