186 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
We have at least the knowledge which should lead to the organization 
and maintenance of an efficient transport and commissariat service, and 
possibly to the substitution of regimental supervision for that now adopted 
in both of these departments. We have secured to the service a pack 
saddle that admits of but little improvement, while what is more impor¬ 
tant, we have learned to move an army during a montlds march without 
either baggage or followers, and have gained the certainty that the require¬ 
ments of British troops in the field are so small as to make them capable 
of performing long marches with rapidity. The reduction of camp equipage, 
and the packing of stores, forage, &c. in small compass for mule carriage is 
not unimportant. If our carriage for sick has been unwieldy and cumber¬ 
some, we may congratulate ourselves that it has been so little used, and 
hope for improvement. 
We have for the first time laid down a regular telegraph on field service, 
and have done so with success, and our system of signalling has been 
useful. 
The accompanying reports on the employment of elephants for the 
carriage of field guns, and 8-inch mortars, and on the equipment of 
our mountain batteries, will prove how valuable has been the experience we 
have gained in the selection of the materiel of artillery for mountain 
campaigns. 
While our steel guns have more than answered the expectations formed of 
them, the Snider rifle has been thoroughly tested as a weapon for rough 
service and good shooting. 
The Abyssinian expedition bears strongly on the employment of native 
troops in our colonial dependencies, a question now under discussion. 
Our troops have been engaged in the construction of a railway and of 
roads, which bear testimony to the superior skill of our Engineer Officers, 
and throughout the expedition the army has been independent of civilian 
engineers and mechanics. 
The sanitary measures adopted throughout have been effective. 
Great opportunity has been afforded for a comparison of the different 
methods of equipping ships for troops in the ports of England and the three 
Presidencies; the comfort and convenience of the hospital ships have 
excited admiration. 
The reports of Mr Blandford of the Geological Survey of India, and of 
Mr Markham, Secretary to the Boyal Geographical Society, who travelled 
with the Eorce will interest those who care to follow the scientific researches 
prosecuted in a country bearing the marks of ancient civilization, which 
are met with in Abyssinia. 
It is a subject for congratulation that the army was accompanied by 
Eoreign Officers, representing the armies of Erance, Prussia, Austria, Italy, 
Spain, and Holland, whose accounts must necessarily contain a disinterested 
statement of the operations which have resulted in a speedy and successful 
termination of the Abyssinian Expedition. 
Note to Map. In consequence of the difficult nature of the road between Marrowah and Dildee 
(18 miles), some of the troops were halted at Enade about four miles short of that place. 
