288 THE CAMEL 



with these same mules under Maltese drivers, assisted 

 by a handful of commissariat and transport men, who 

 as a matter of fact did all the work, it took us from 

 six in the morning until 8.30 at night to saddle and 

 load 200 mules,- and it was 9.30 before we got clear 

 of the commissariat stores on our way to the front, 

 on a pitch-dark night too. Those first few days were 

 an experience in themselves, and such as one wants but 

 once in a lifetime, and I shall never forget them. It 

 was not until Tel-el-Kebir had been fought, and our 

 services no longer required, that we began to get ship- 

 shape and into working order. The mules had long 

 since settled down, but the drivers oh ! the drivers 

 were fiends incarnate. I might give many instances of 

 mulish experiences ; but I have already said enough. 

 As a draught animal on service I have had no experience 

 with him, though from what I have seen of him in 

 India and South Africa, in Cape carts and coaches, I 

 have a very high opinion of his powers. Spanish mules 

 are also magnificent creatures, but from what I know 

 of them they seem to be bred nearly exclusively for 

 draught work, some of the smaller sized ones being 

 reserved for the mountain artillery. 



P 0n ie S I have had a good deal to do with ponies, and have 



always found them excellent. They are very tough, 

 and thrive on very little food, and couritry-breds, such 

 as the Indian tats, and those of Egypt and Syria (which 

 have a good strain of Arabian blood in them) can do 

 or more correctly go without water for a longish 

 time. At Suakim in 1884, and up the Nile in 1885, 

 the country-breds which carried the 10th and 19th 

 Hussars, carrying 17 to 18 stone on an average, were 



