Letters From the Front

Dated:

Letter from J. M. Agar
          Belgium, Nov. 26  1915
Dear Brother and Sister:
     Your letters of Oct. 31 came about a week ago and I enjoyed them very much.  It will most likely be winter with you now.  Here in Belgium they are still ploughing.  I saw some beets to-day still in the ground, although there are not many now but what are pitted, or put away somehow.  There were a few days last week which were cold.  It froze hard at night and did not altogether thaw out in the day time, it has been milder since, some showery weather.  It is freezing to-night again.  I would prefer some dry cold weather to the raw damp air we are getting now.
     I am still with the engineers.  To-day was the first this week that I was away from the yard where our billet is.  Half a dozen of us went out four or five miles on a wagon this morning, to do a little job, I enjoyed the trip out.  It was through apart of the country I have not been over before.  We passed a town about the size of New Liskeard.  It was a pleasure to see a place of that size where people are living, and where the buildings are intact, instead of being all piled in a heap of ruins.
     I have been on one night job.  It is over a week ago now  I saw one of the large guns which supports the Canadian infantry.  It was a twelve inch.  There is certainly a weight of metal in the gun, and the carriage it rests on.
     It is like looking at a mogul railroad locomotive.  I also saw a number of the shells it fires.  They are twelve inches in diameter, and a few inches over three feet long, and weigh between six and seven hundred pounds each.  I was told that when they are fired from the gun they rise to a height of five thousand feet into the air in their course from the gun to their mark.  They are usually fired at a mark several miles from the gun, perhaps from about three to five miles.  It was very interesting to see how the gun is operated, also the way the shells are handled.  They have a small truck at the rear of the gun on which is a derrick.  The gun can be swung so as to cover a large front and the truck, on which a number of shells can be placed, is on a track so that it can be kept immediately behind the gun.  The shells are lifted one at a time, with the derrick, and placed on a little carriage which moves them forward to the breach of the gun.  The noise of the shell after it leaves the gun, is a little like the distant rumbling of thunder, especially if one is anywhere near their course through the air overhead.
     It was a pleasant ride out to the job this morning.  It was clear for a while.  It had been raining and snowing earlier before day light.  The country, reminds me very much of New Ontario in many ways.  I have noticed, when travelling along the roads here, that there are the same long gradual slopes as in New Ont.  I was on a hill some time ago from where I had a view of the country on every side for miles.  This morning I found we had got on to a high part of the country from where we had a fine view.  We could see several villages, and the town I spoke of.  I could also see the hill I had been on a week or more ago.  It was white with snow, and made a fine view against the sky.  There is considerable timber on the slopes of the hill some evergreens near the top, and also one of the old fashioned Dutch windmills.  I used to think when I saw a picture of one of those windmills, that some one had drawn the picture from their imagination, but I have been inside one of the towers, the wheel with its four arms is mounted on, and was very much surprised to find how powerful they are.  They grind the wheat for flour with the old fashioned stones, as well as grind grain for feed with different styles of crushers.
     I will enjoy the honey when it comes.  I hope it reaches me all right.  Will close for this time with best wishes for a Merry Christmas to all you all up there.
                   Your brother,
                        J. M. Agar.