MOUNTAIN ARTILLERIES OF FRANCE AND ITALY. 263 
Carriage mule, carrying the body of the carriage which includes axle 
and elevating gear permanently fixed, drag ropes and 
on the cradle near side in sling a lantern. 
Wheels mule, carrying the wheels, the trail portion, a pair of folding 
shafts on top of trail. A carriage bearer across the 
cradle supports the wheels. ‘T'his load necessitates a 
certain amount of lashing and a very awkward one, 
especially when moving through a woody country. 
Gun mule, carrying the gun with breech and muzzle caps and lifter, 
a leather wallet containing small gun stores and a 
slung case shot. 
Ammunition mule, carrying two wooden boxes of ammunition (con- 
tents already given). 
One mule per section carries entrenching tools. 
One mule per section, spare, bare-backed. 
One mule per Battery, cacolet. 
All mules carry their own stable gear and nose bags, and the blanket 
is under the saddle. All the loads seemed to have alot of unnecessary 
lashing about them. 
DRaAvuGuHt. 
I was anxious to know the French opinion on the subject of draught 
in Mountain Batteries. I was informed that draught was required only 
as a relief when marching on the highroads, where from no variety in 
the “ going,” and the hardness and dust of the highway, men and mules 
suffered considerably more from blistered feet and galls respectively, than 
in the mountains. It also enabled them when making forced marches 
in the plains to carry the mens’ packs on the unladen mules. Their 
draught system consists of a pair of shafts one end of which is attached 
to the trail, the other end (points of shafts) being attached to the gun 
mule with the carriage mule hooked on in front of the former, tandem 
fashion. Then follows the ammunition mule carrying the boxes, and 
in rear again, the wheel mule laden if ordered with the mens’ knap- 
sacks, otherwise without load. In action, at drill—which took 2 
minutes to come into—the guns were at 7 metres distance from trail 
to trail, and 15 metres in rear were the first pair of ammunition 
boxes per sub-division on the ground, and one metre in front of the 
ammunition mules, the remaining mules of each sub-division were in 
column in rear of the ammunition mule. The detachment consisted 
of 1 “Chef de piece””—Gun Captain—and six gunners, one of whom 
is the layer selected after a 8 months’ course and wearing a red 
grenade on the left arm. 
Fire Discreiine. 
The fire discipline is that laid down for the field artillery and not 
nearly as thorough as our own. Their rates of fire vary from one round 
a minute slow fire to ten or twelve rounds a minute quick fire. The 
number of rounds per minute is given by the Battery Commander as a 
rule. Sometimes when firing with indirect laying if the Commander 
wishes to assure himself that the direction is correct he orders a gun to 
fire with time fuze set to 7th second longer than is correct for the 
