mmer lightning with the flash of
myriads of shells, and the horizon was defined in electric green from
the flares of the Germans, I fancied that I could see the shadowy
spirits of the departed ones hovering over this spot before their
final departure, and I felt that they must realize that the work of
our army in its struggle for the freedom of the world was being
carried on with increasing efficiency.

Indissoluble ties now bind France to Canada: her soil has been watered
with our very best blood and the bond of a common suffering in a
righteous cause has united us forever.

_A Hot Day in the Field._

One hot day in early June I made a tour of the ---- divisional area
with the sanitary officer. We had been asked to go over this area, and
make suggestions for the improvement of its sanitary condition. It was
the only time during two summers spent in France that I felt I was
really in the "sunny France" of my imagination. The sun beat down on
the floor of our open car so that when one stopped for a minute it
became a veritable little red hot radiator. So long as we kept moving,
the breeze created made it bearable; but when we left the car for a
minute the seats become too hot to sit on, and the perspiration
fairly streamed down our faces.

The air rising from the fields and roads vibrated like that over a hot
stove; the dust raised by motors hung suspended for long minutes in
the motionless air, and filled one's nose and mouth. The chickens in
the farmyards stood with beaks wide open gasping for air.

Even military form was relaxed on account of the heat, and lorry
drivers, men on transports, and troops marched and worked with their
coats off. All the water ditches near the front were filled with
soldiers bathing themselves. It is extraordinary how war conditions
will break down conventions. Many times that day I saw absolutely nude
men bathing in a roadside ditch, and women passing only a few yards
away, neither of them being at all concerned about the others.
Sections of the Aire-La-Bassee canal looked like the "old swimming
pool" in midsummer. Hundreds of soldiers dived, swam, and rolled about
in the dirty waters. Finely built, rosy-skinned chaps they were too,
playing about like care-free boys, with aeroplanes buzzing by
overhead, and shells exploding in a village to the rear.

After a busy morning making our inspection and taking water samples
for examination, we dined at the divisional Mess B and set out a