MARCHING AT HOME AND ABROAD. S775) 
reveille, feed should sound, the tents should then be struck by bugle- 
call, and packed; an hour gives ample time to do all. The camp 
ground should be cleaned up, and straw and rubbish burnt by the rear- 
guard, who should see this carried out before moving off. 
The coffee shop should go on half-way over night, so that the men 
can obtain a cup of hot coffee and biscuits or cake at the halt. The 
plan I recommend is to halt and look round, if necessary water and 
feed (but this only on long marches), and then for each sergeant or 
No. ] to send a N.-C.O. and a man to draw coffee and cake, etc. for 
every man in his section or sub-division ; the coffee and cake is all put 
out ready in cans and baskets, with three or four pannikins per sub- 
division by the man in charge of the coffee shop, he having the night 
before received intimation of the number per sub-division; this saves 
the men leaving their horses and avoids crowding or fuss, a man will 
at the same time go round the battery with extras and cigars; the 
mess can arrange for the officers’ coffee or tea, etc. to be at the same 
place. I pay the coffee shop, and pass it through the men’s accounts 
at the end of the month. The coffee shop then packs up and moves 
on quickly to set up in camp, a portion haying already gone on ahead. 
Before starting on the road, the officer in charge of the coffee-shop 
should make arrangements for a good stock of tobacco, cigars, cheese, 
bacon, soda water, lemonade, etc., etc. to carry on the road, and also 
on a long march, that consignments meet the battery at places where 
the camping ground is near to a railway station ; a well organised and 
furnished coffee shop is a great boon on the march. 
The canteen will make similar arrangements for beer, this can 
generally be done, as now the trunk roads are always meeting the lines 
of railways. Rum being easier to carry than beer, a certain amount of 
it can be taken if there is any possibility of being a long time distant 
from the rail. 
On arriving at the camping ground, the lines and gun-park will be 
found: already marked out by the Q.-M.-S., also the places for 
tents, the regiment or battery then draws up on the ground allotted 
for parade or gun-park, and proceeds to water and picket ; a battery 
draws up its guns in line, the wagons covering them (small flags 
having been placed to mark where the points of the shafts should be 
for the guidance of the drivers), unhooks, and while the drivers and 
horse-holders file to water, the duty numbers lay down the picket 
ropes, lines of white cord haying been pegged out for them to follow, 
the sergeants taking care to dress all the picket posts and heel pegs 
correctly. I carry a spare set of strong iron posts in my battery also 
serviceable heel pegs, and a few iron mallets, as the Government issue 
knock up in a day or two. The horses then file on the lines, and are 
tied up by their head-ropes until the line gear arrives, which it should 
do in from 20 to 80 minutes, that is if conveyed on mule carts; after 
filing on the lines a little grass should be given at once to each horse 
to keep him quiet until the line gear comes in; the men then roughly 
groom the horses over, and take off kits, in about fifteen minutes the 
order “ off saddles”? should be given, and the horses’ backs sharply 
wisped, or beaten with the palms of the hands and well dried to pro- 
mote circulation, and to prevent heat lumps rising, the blankets should 
Coffee shop 
Canteen. 
Camp. 
