TRAVEL IN THE EASTERN SUDAN 17 



However, their ideas are concerned rather with the 

 quantity than the quality of this fluid, and I recom- 

 mend every traveller to make his own arrangements 

 independently. For myself and my Indian servants 

 I purchased two fantasses or water-tanks from 

 Leslie and Co., Calcutta, and had them shipped 

 direct to Souakin. They held eight gallons of water 

 apiece, and when full weighed 120 Ib. each. More- 

 over, I supplied myself with Nesfield's Disinfecting 

 Tablets for eight-gallon jars, from the firm of Smith, 

 Stanistreet, Calcutta. These last were unnecessary 

 when I was encamped on the big rivers, of which the 

 water seemed to me the finest in the world, even when 

 the visible flow had ceased entirely. Their use was, 

 however, indispensable when I had to drink from the 

 infrequent wells of the country, and to it I attribute 

 the practical immunity of my party from all internal 

 disorders. I had a Berkenfeldt filter also, but the 

 tablets proved so satisfactory that I did not even 

 unpack it. In addition to the fantasses, I brought a 

 first-rate waterskin of the Indian antelope from India, 

 which, by reason of the evaporation from the surface, 

 provided me with a constant supply of cool water for 

 drinking. I also brought a chagal or leather water- 

 bottle from India, which held nearly a gallon, and was 

 carried either on my own camel or by an attendant 

 when shooting ; and a regulation aluminium water- 

 bottle which I was quite prepared to carry myself 

 c 



