530 WITH THE INTERNATIONAL FIELD FORCE IN CRETE, 1897. 
ployed, a simple system of shaft draught being provided, as in our 
Egyptian Mountain Batteries, by which when the nature of the ground 
permits, the gun and carriage (the trying top loads in a battery) 
are put into draught. In a mountainous country a relief is not con¬ 
sidered necessary, as the going is so much more varied, and I must 
say that in a temperate, as distinct from a tropical climate, and with 
pannels, stuffed with hair instead of as in India with wool, there is much 
to be said against it This shaft system is very light, was jointed in 
most cases, and always carried on the wheels mule In the French and 
Russian equipments the carriage is jointed, to allow of a heavier car¬ 
riage, and so the recoil brought down to a closer limit than in our 
equipment; as also by using one piece only, to give the necessary in¬ 
creased elevation, when using curvd fire. In turn-out, the Russian 
Battery was the smartest of the Foreign Artilleries. But of course 
the continental idea of smartness of appearance differs much from our 
own. The Italian equipment is rough but serviceable, though their 
gun is feeble in power, and showed itself such in their war with 
Abyssinia. The equipment of the Turkish Batteries is quite pre-his- 
toric, port fires used instead of tubes, and their cartridges which are 
merely loosely tied bags of powder varying in weight according to the 
facility of escape of the grains of powder in each case. Their mode of 
bringing the guns into action, appeared to resemble a repository opera¬ 
tion, time being apparently of no object Their shooting also was most 
indifferent against the Insurgents, who had no respect for their fire, 
and fire discipline is unknown to them. The Italian fire discipline was I 
thought superior to that of the other foreign artilleries. Their system 
of ranging was the modified ladder system, resembling somewhat that 
experimented with at Okehampton last season ; but spoilt by their neg¬ 
lecting to verify the trajectory before proceeding to time Shrapnel. 
The pack saddlery of the Russian battery w s peculiar, layers of felt 
laid under a large leather cover covering the whole of the body of the 
pack horse and taking the place of pannels. The ammunition boxes 
of all the equipments were of wood instead of as with us, of the lighter 
and more serviceable leather. A pair carried from 12 rounds in the 
Russian to 20 rounds in the Turkish equipment. 
In one or two equipments the boxes opened at the side instead of 
on the top, enabling the ammunition number to carry on his duties 
in action without exposing the ammunition. In most of the equip¬ 
ments the shell were carried fuzed. 
I am inclined to consider it doubtful whether our present 2.5^ screw 
gun (about to be replaced by a 10-pr.) was the most suitable equipment 
we can employ for operations, such as we might have been engaged 
in, and most certainly not with the limited transport 38 mules with 
which we landed in Crete. The Russians had 160 pack horses with 
their battery. Fourteen additional mules were placed at my disposal 
by the A.S.C., by order of Sir H. Chermside. But even this only en¬ 
abled me to take 32 rounds a gun into the field, and 1 spare mule per 
sub-division, but no relief line or artificers’ mules. Now in our service, 
in which we may be called upon to act anywhere, the term Mountain 
