THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
133 
squares; but tbe whole country had become overgrown with grass jungle, 
which had been burnt down for our reception, and anything more filthy 
than the consequences cannot be imagined, for the blacks got through 
clothes, into one's ears, nose, and eyes, while the very taste of it was in 
our meals. 
The only water available was got from a muddy, sluggish, reed-fringed 
stream, which at one place opened into a deep pond, where many of us 
cleansed ourselves from the mass of blacks which had made the white 
officers in complexion like unto the men. 
Notwithstanding the road having been previously made for us, it took 
four hours to accomplish the eight miles: the march proving a peculiarly 
exhausting one, owing to the walls of grass on either hand having kept out 
the breeze, the absence of any shelter from the fierce rays of the sun, and 
the great scarcity of water. 
On arriving at the encamping ground we had to make room for our tents 
by clearing the ground of the dense high masses of matted grass, and to 
allow an uninterrupted view to the sentries it was directed that a certain 
space in front and rear of each corps was to be similarly cleared of rank 
vegetation. Bill-hooks, reaping-hooks, and swords were soon hard at work, 
but two hours labour made so little impression on the dense and formidable 
growth of tropical grass that at length we employed elephants to tread it 
down. This gave us an unpleasant idea of the nature of the country we 
had to force our way through. 
At 6 a.m. next morning (the 31st December) the force started, through 
an apparently endless forest of high grass jungle. As no road had been 
made we advanced at a minimum rate of rapidity; to the right and left rose 
a wall of grass into which a man could only dive with difficulty—a horseman 
was lost in the dense masses that reared themselves high over his head— 
he could neither see or hear, for the noise of his comrades breaking through 
the grass was great. 
The three hundred cavalry led the column, and they certainly made the 
passage for the infantry comparatively easy, but the artillery elephants did 
the most towards marking the path of our force. 
About noon—it is impossible to say how far we had travelled—a fire 
arose in the grass jungle to the south and westward of our march, and 
gave considerable concern, as besides the natural fear that elephants have 
of fire, we had a large proportion of artillery ammunition; however, the 
fire swept away in rear of us, and shortly afterwards we arrived on the 
banks of a river called the Borepanee, on either side of which there were 
occasional stretches of sand and stones. 
A high bank, densely covered with the everlasting grass jungle, was 
chosen for the camping ground of the infantry and cavalry, and this was 
fired in places to clear it, but either through carelessness or inexperience 
the jungle was burnt in strips, and again the same harrassing duty had to 
be performed of clearing the grass jungle. At half-past two the force 
began to get their tents up, and I can answer that all were right ready for 
their meals. Throughout this marching and countermarching we seldom 
were able to break our fast before noon, often not before two or three p.m. 
At the request of their commanding officer, the artillery were permitted 
to encamp in one of the stretches of sand, and we were in comparative 
18—2 
