e forenoon, our water-cart not arriving
when expected, I had a long hunt for a well where we could draw a
small quantity of water, but it was with great difficulty we got it,
every well being reserved for some particular unit.

We are on the eve of a big battle. To-morrow the front of Krithia is
to be captured at any cost. We must get on and the cost must no longer
be counted. In preparation for this there has been much ranging by all
the batteries, to which the Turks feebly replied. We have no right to
have our dressing station where it is, we have dumped ourselves down,
and have erected our largest Red Cross flag, in front of several
closely packed lines of reserve trenches, which is contrary to the
rules of warfare, and if we get shelled it is our own lookout. To-day
these trenches swarmed with men, and four shells were fired at them,
the first just grazing the trench we are in. In the same way two
submarines lie off the coast, close to the C.C.S. on one side and the
hospital ships on the other, hence shells are continuously dropping in
the former, but for this we cannot blame the Turk. So far, all are
agreed that the Turk has not only put up a valiant fight, but a
straight one, and if he continues as he is doing it will be better for
him when the day of reckoning comes round.

_August 6th._--When sitting at dinner with Fiddes word reached us that
Kellas had been killed. Such a blow to us and to all who knew good and
gentle Kellas. Curiosity had frequently led us both into positions of
danger where we ought not to have been, and I always noted how
fearless he was. To-day he had been along a deep communication trench,
along which wounded were to be carried in the action we knew was about
to take place, and he had been viewing the ground, and while standing
at the extreme end of this trench a sniper had caught sight of the
group he was standing in and a shot laid him low. About an hour after
this sad event I had orders to take his place in The Gully. As the
fight was to begin at 2 p.m. I had little time to get into my place,
at least three miles distant. I set off at once to our advanced
dressing station at the Zigzag, three-quarters of a mile up The Gully
from Aberdeen Gully.

To-day's battle has been a most bloody affair, wounded beginning to
drop in at once. As often happens, out of our four first cases three
were wounds in the left hand--one a bullet through the centre of the
palm, another was minus the first