MARCHING AND CARRYING POWER 199 



the choice (1) of any route, therefore choose the 

 easiest; (2) of halting at the time and place most 

 suitable and convenient to rest and feed their animals ; 

 (3) and they have better opportunities of procuring 

 grain or forage, if necessary owing to an insufficiency 

 or want of pasture. On the other hand, a military 

 train, for various reasons, due probably to the tactics of 

 the enemy, has no choice in the matter, but is com- 

 pelled by necessity to cross an arid waterless desert, as 

 in the march from Korti to Metammeh, or march 

 through barren mountainous country, as we did in 

 Afghanistan, or when, in order to outflank and get in 

 rear of the enemy, a change of base is indispensable, as 

 in the Egyptian War of 1882. The loads, too, are 

 usually clumsy and unwieldy and excessively hurtful 

 to the poor brutes, who are generally overloaded, 

 underfed, and rarely, if ever, get any rest or grazing. 

 That a great many of these defects can be remedied by 

 system I need hardly say, sometimes even to the choice 

 of routes, as recent experience has demonstrated ; and 

 that a comparison between the native system and our 

 own in the management of a convoy cannot fail to 

 show up our shortcomings and mistakes, if it will not 

 teach us wholesome and profitable lessons. 



The greatest care is necessary, even with the cara- 

 vans ; for the journey from Suakim to Berber, owing to 

 the scarcity of food and water, is a very trying one ; and 

 that from Korosko to Abu Hamed is most severe, the 

 distance being 230 miles over the worst desert con- 

 ceivable, with next to nothing to eat, and only one well 

 on the whole road, about half-way. The heat, too, is 

 terrific during the greater part of the year, and the 



