294 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



which it could be watered. I followed the track of a 

 solitary gazelle, but did not come up to it. In the 

 distance were several small clumps of brushwood. 



The going from Taklis was splendid — hard level 

 sand. Here and there a small conical kopje, thirty feet 

 high, broke the monotony of the plain. About half- 

 way to Sheb we saw the tracks of a few gazelle leading 

 to a long palm-covered rise to the south. Here and 

 there were the skeletons of camels. We came to a 

 long sharp rise, and crossing it, saw in the distance a 

 group of terabil. " El Hamdillillah, we're there," 

 quoth the guide. " Walahi, you're a wonderful man," 

 said the other policeman with me. "Give praise to 

 God, it is his mercy that led us," smirked the former. 

 It was well he had not assumed the credit, as it turned 

 out that this was not Sheb. Another and higher ridge 

 faced us ; bones of camels lined the way. On climbing 

 it we saw the blockhouse of Sheb away in the distance. 

 On either side of us were sandstone hills, sixty feet high, 

 and in front a descent, to the level, of loo to 150 feet, 

 to get down which we had to dismount. We rode on 

 about two miles and then struck the innumerable tracks 

 of the Arbain road, forming a perceptible line across 

 country, and followed them for the last mile to the 

 well. The latter is hollowed in a soft white rock, and 

 the water, though plentiful and clear, is brackish. Sheb 

 shows traces of the long residence of the Camel Corps 

 under Tudway Bey (Colonel Tudway, C.B., D.S.O.). 

 Old boots and clothing, not to forget a fragment of a 

 flowered waistcoat of chaste (sic) design beloved of the 

 native orderly, are to be found round the blockhouse. 



