weapons that were available, and ever seeking to invent contrivances
that added to comfort. Many of the inventions are forgotten, but some
are in use in France to-day, notably the "periscope rifle" or
"sniperscope" and the "thumb periscope" which is no thicker than a
man's finger. It was found that our box-periscopes were always being
smashed by the Turkish snipers; so one ingenious brain collared an
officer's cane and scooped, out the centre. With tiny mirrors top and
bottom, it was a very effective periscope, and soon most officers were
minus their canes. Some very good bombs were made from jam-tins with a
wad of guncotton, and filled up with all manner of missiles. These
improvised bombs were risky to handle, and some men lost their lives
through carelessness, though probably there were nearly as many
accidents through overcaution. They would generally be provided with a
five-second fuse, and you were supposed to swing three times before
throwing. Some men who had not much faith in the time-fuse threw the
bombs as soon as the spark struck, which gave the Turks time to return
them. Both sides played this game of catch, but I think we were the
better at it. The way of lighting the fuse was to hold the head of a
match on the powder stream, drawing the friction-paper across it. This
generally caught immediately, but after a while some one introduced the
idea of having burning sticks in the trench, and a "torchman" would
pass down the trench lighting each fuse. One man was not sure that the
spark had caught and began blowing on it and was surprised when it blew
his hand off. We would drop on top of the Turks' bombs a coat or
sand-bag, and it was surprising how little damage was done. If you put
a sheet of iron on top of one, or a sand-bag full of earth, it would
make the explosion very much worse, but loose cloth would spread out
and make a spring-cushion by compression of the air above.

There was another use made of empty jam-tins: they were tied to our