72 



THE HORSE AND THE WAR 



A winter's scene on the road to the Front. Waiting for water. 



issue up the line. In this way he ma\'' have anything from 500 to 700 animals 

 under his care, farm buildings, as well as covered lines, being utilized for 

 stabling ; while, when the grass is gro\\ing in the spring and the summer, the 

 poorer animals are given their absolute freedom and the reinvigorating feed. 

 In the summer months, too, it is the custom of this squadron leader to swim 

 his horses in the sea close b}^ I mention these details because they will show 

 the care, thought, and enterprise of those who are giving all their life-long 

 experience and enthusiasm towards bringing the war-horse back to health 

 and maintaining him at the maximum of his strength and usefulness. I 

 will just add, in reference to " C " depot as a whole, that since its establish- 

 ment to the end of 1917 well over 100,000 animals had been received and 

 issued, the average per day of those coming from the veterinary hospitals 

 in the vicinity being 48, while, of course, the arrivals from overseas week after 

 week were substantial. 



Passing along the coast there is, appropriately handy to a port, a fourth 

 base depot. It has its own particular designation for Army purposes, but it 

 is politic that we should know it in print as " D." Its strength is considerable, 

 running to six squadrons, but you will perhaps better understand its size and 

 the activity of those associated with it if I say that it deals with an average 

 from day to day of between 3,coo and 4,000 animals. Like those others I 

 have described, it receives many horses and mules from England, the routine 

 being for an officer and a party of men to be at the docks in readiness for the 

 transport berthing. When once alongside and the " brows " fixed it is a 



