MARCHING AND CARRYING POWER 209 



scouting in the desert I lost several in this way, usually 

 through careless and reckless riding. Should the 

 ground be at all cut up by watercourses or ravines Ravines, 

 (which are slippery) his fears add to his already in- courses, 

 creased exertion. Numbers have thus laid down their marshes 

 loads and their lives at places such as these. 



If the ground you are moving over is clayey or clayey 



. ., . an< * rocky 



rocky, it is advisable not to march during rain or im- ground 

 mediately after, for reasons already given. Should it, 

 however, be a case of absolute necessity to march, it is 

 better for the animals to do so during the rain than 

 subsequently, because there will be less chance of 

 their catching cold, and getting rheumatism or other 

 diseases, as the exercise will keep them warm. 

 Naturally the officer in charge would select the driest 

 and best route available, and one over rocks and 

 stones would at such a time be much more desirable 

 than across clay or mud. 



At Trinkitat, however, in 1884, we had a nasty 

 marsh to cross, luckily no distance from the camp, 

 over which the sappers had improvised a kind of 

 fascine roadway, which only increased the camels' diffi- 

 culties tenfold, and which after the first essay we 

 carefully avoided. Many a camel and many a load 

 was lost in it, or said to be at all events. The beauty 

 of the whole thing was, that when we had struggled 

 through it by dint of extra elbow-grease and strong 

 adjectives, our intelligent Intelligence Department dis- 

 covered that there was a good road round the dread 

 morass very little longer than the short cut. 



The camel, though it is not generally known, is a strong 

 strong swimmer, and I have seen him swim across the 



