56 
SOME EXPERIENCES IN EGYPT. 
men in a thoroughly soldierlike manner and they were cheerful and 
contented throughout. 
The Nile was encountered in full flood and it was often with great 
difficulty that the heavily laden steamers were able to stem it. 
One non-commissioned officer was unfortunately drowned on the way, 
but eventually officers and men, guns, ammunition, stores and mules 
all arrived safely at the objective point. 
The battery left Cairo on 28th July, and arrived off Omdurman on 
1st September, travelling, for most of the way, in company with a 
Maxim battery manned by the Eoyai Irish Fusiliers, and two 40-pr. 
guns manned by the 16th Company Eastern Division, E.A. When 
the battery went to Egypt the horses and British drivers were 
left behind in England and mules and native drivers taken on in their 
place. As regards the latter the Lecturer said “ They were a very 
“nice lot indeed, real good fellows, willing but very stupid and 
“ exceedingly noisy. They were simply peasants—the Egyptian fella - 
“ keen —nominally soldiers because they wore uniform, but that was 
“ all. We did not get the drilled soldier, as of course he was wanted 
u up at the front, so we got the last batch of recruits. After a bit 
“ they got into good order and turned out a very serviceable set of 
" men. I was exceedingly pleased with them, in the end, when they 
“ got well disciplined.” 
The journey up the Nile was divided, it might be said, into sections 
and the sections were dealt with differently according as the troops 
were within the range of civilization, near Cairo, or actually in contact 
with the enemy. 
From Cairo to Khizam the battery and animals proceeded by rail and 
from Khizam to Assouan in a Cook's steamer towing two barges. At 
Assouan they disembarked and marched round the cataract to Shellal 
where they found their howitzers which had been sent all the way by 
rail from Cairo. The men, mules and howitzers, 40-prs. and Maxims, 
were then all put in barges, lashed to stern-wheelers and conveyed 
to Wady Haifa where they took the Desert Eailway to Atbara. The 
officers were accommodated in a luggage van and the men in trucks, 
while the mules also travelled in trucks, but of the very roughest 
description. A most interesting account was given of the railway 
generally and how the engine has to drag its coal and water across 
the desert. 
Atbara was the base of operations, and the battery bivouacked there 
for three days. Here everything in the way of stores and baggage 
which could be dispensed with, was left, and the mens' kits were 
reduced to two havresacks, a blanket and a waterproof sheet. The 
blankets were of a special pattern with eyelet holes, which were of 
great use such as in hanging them up for a protection against the sun 
either in the barges or on shore. It was at Atbara the gun-boats were 
first met with. “Beautiful boats, a pleasure to see!” said the 
Lecturer. From Atbara to Wad Hamed, the advanced point of con¬ 
centration, the mounted portion of the battery marched by the bank, 
