CAUSES OF WASTAGE. 63 



ration of 5 to 6 lb. of grain and two gallons of water, for 

 10 days they marched 31 miles daily. At the first advance 

 on Matammeh they marched to the Nile without having 

 received a drop of water for 55 hours, and only 1 lb. of grain. 

 During their halt at Gubat from 20th January to 14th 

 February, they were fed on 10 lb. dhourra stalk daily, and 

 on their return journey to Korti the first 75 miles of the 

 journey was performed on 4 lb. grain and three gallons of 

 water. The horses were allowed to graze on every possible 

 occasion on the grass of the Bayuda Desert, but it was very 

 dry and they ate little. Out of the 155 animals 19 died or 

 were destroyed for debility or exhaustion, five from other 

 causes, and 20 were killed in action between the 8th January 

 and 8th March. 



The wastage in the South African War has already been 

 alluded to, and by far the greatest amount was due to Debility 

 and Exhaustion, the war being very considerably one of move- 

 ment and trekking. It simply swallowed up animals ; and 

 replacements, being so unfit, never had much of a chance from 

 the outset. North American animals, though good, were the 

 victims of operations in a country of reverse seasons : Argentines 

 were grass fed animals in their own countries, and missing 

 their beautiful alfalfa and being unaccustomed to grain and 

 to feeding out of nose-bags, quickly went to pieces : Hungarian 

 horses were, and are at their best, "flatcatchers"' and also are 

 grass fed in their ' own country : Eussian cobs for mounted 

 infantry purposes, at least those -from the Urals, being a tough 

 lot, weathered the storm : the London bus horse, full of good 

 hard English keep, rendered a good account of himself : but 

 the native of the country was the hardiest of all. Truly it was 

 the survival of the fittest. I call to mind a reconnaissance of 

 Plumer's Force, when, mounted on South African ponies, 70 

 miles were covered in 26 hours and not a single animal dropped 

 out, and this during the season of "Horse-sickness." Also, after 

 over a year of hard campaigning, 30 per cent, of the original 

 ponies of his Ehodesia Eegiment were handed back to the 

 Eemount Department when the regiment was broken up. It 

 is an example of the fitness of animals that are required for the 

 hard usages of a war of movement. 



