mal, or tear-producing, gas, which is
used in the same way as the asphyxiating, but its effects are not
fatal, merely putting a man out of action for a few hours. It is
really, however, the most efficacious of the three types, as it does
not evaporate as readily as the asphyxiating gas. As a well
distributed fire of lachrymal shells will form a screen of gas which
will last for several hours, they are often used during an attack to
prevent the enemy from bringing up reinforcements. Another use is
against artillery positions, the clouds of gas from the lachrymal
shells making it almost impossible for the men to serve the guns. I
was also told of these shells having been used with great success to
surround the headquarters of a divisional commander, disabling him
and his entire staff during an attack.

Before a change in the wind dissipated the last odors of gas, darkness
had fallen. "Now," said my cicerone, "we will resume our trip to the
trenches." The last time that I had seen these trenches, which the
Russians are now holding, was in October, 1915, during the great
French offensive in Champagne, when I had visited them within a few
hours after their capture by the French. On that occasion they had
been so pounded by the French artillery that they were little more
than giant furrows in the chalky soil, and thickly strewn along those
furrows was all the horrid garbage of a battlefield: twisted and
tangled barbed wire, splintered planks, shattered rifles, broken
machine-guns, unexploded hand-grenades, knapsacks, water-bottles,
pieces of uniforms, bits of leather, and, most horrible of all, the
remains of what had once been human beings. But all this debris had
long since been cleared away. Under the skilful hands of the Russians
the rebuilt trenches had taken on a neat and orderly appearance. The
earthen walls had been revetted with wire chicken-netting, and instead
of tramping through ankle-deep mud, we had beneath our feet neat walks
of corduroy. We tramped for what seemed interminable miles in the
darkness, always zig-zagging. Now and then we would come upon little
fires, discreetly screened, built at the entrances to dugouts burrowed
from the trench-walls. Over these fires soldiers in flat caps and
belted greatcoats were cooking their evening meal. I had expected to
see unkempt men wearing sheepskin caps, men with flat noses and matted
beards, but instead I found clean-shaven, splendidly set-up giants,
with the pink