241 



CHAPTSE XI 



EQUIPMENT 



LIKE everything else in connection with our camel 

 transport on service the gear has always been as bad 

 as it could possibly be. No greater evil can be well 

 devised than a badly-fitting saddle, for, as we saw in 

 chapter ix., it was on account of the utter rottenness of 

 the saddlery that such a large proportion of camels both 

 in Afghanistan and Egypt got galls, which when taken 

 in time only temporarily incapacitated them, but which 

 ruined them for good and all when worked as they 

 invariably were. As we have already read in the same 

 chapter that the saddles served out to the transport ser- 

 vice not only fitted badly, but were so defective in the 

 construction of their framework, as well as in that of 

 the pads and padding, which were of the poorest and 

 worst material, it is quite needless to go over the 

 same ground. It is simply iniquitous, however, that 

 such should have been the case, looking at it from a 

 humane as well as from a transport officer's point of 

 view, and it is high time that a move were made in the 

 right direction, and a pattern saddle fixed upon and 

 kept in stock. 



The saddles used by us in Afghanistan, as previously saddles 

 pointed out, were bad, but not quite so bad as those 

 we had up the Nile, which were continually falling to 



R 



on service 



