ports,
even those of the Germans themselves, agreed in giving them credit
for having fought like fiends and having spoiled the great German
plan. The first lists of the killed had come out and contained the
names of many of my personal friends, and the sense of a great pride
in the achievements of one division was marred by the sorrow for
their loss.

The town of Poperinge was now deserted. Travelling in that direction
one morning I met streams of refugees coming from it and on entering
it found it like a city of the dead. Not a soul could be seen except
one small unit which had been temporarily forgotten. The French
gendarmes had driven the inhabitants out of the place because it was
said to be full of spies who had been of great assistance to the enemy
at a time when any bit of information might be of incalculable value
to them. From one of the men of this stranded unit I obtained a
three-pound piece of the 15-inch shell which had exploded close to us
a few days before.

A non-com of the sanitary section who had come through Ypres an hour
before told me that he had seen an old woman over 80 years of age
sweeping the front sidewalk and polishing the windows. She was perhaps
the only remaining resident.

The city was being steadily reduced to ruins by a continuous avalanche
of shells and he spoke to her and tried to induce her to come with him
but without avail. "She had lived there all her life and she intended
to die there; it had been her custom to clean the windows and sweep
the sidewalks, and if Providence willed that shells should come and
knock down her neighbors' houses and make a lot of dust, she would
just have to sweep oftener, what was the difference anyway?" And so he
had to leave her.

The laboratory at this time was a place of much interest and many
distinguished generals and medical men came to find out about the gas
and methods of combating it. General Headquarters had sent for me to
watch some practical field experiments and to give them the benefit of
our experience on this question. With the chief engineer of the local
army we carried out some experimental work of our own on a large
scale. These experiments led to certain recommendations which were
later found to be of value in making the German gases less effective.
We also did a good deal of experimental laboratory work with other
gases which might possibly be used, with the object of discovering
their antidotes.

On May 5th the Canadian tr