alive without delaying the progress of the railway with the carriage of their food.  A small quantity of provisions was painfully dragged, with an average loss of 50 per cent from theft and water damage, up the succession of cataracts which obstruct the river-way from Halfa to Kosheh.  Camel convoys from Railhead carried the rest.  But until the line reached Kosheh the resources of the transport were terribly strained, and at one time it was even necessary to send the mounted troops north to avoid actual famine.  The apparent inadequacy of the means to the end reached a climax when the army moved southward from Dulgo.  The marches and halts to Dongola were estimated to take ten days, which was the utmost capacity of camel and steam transport, A few boat-loads of grain might be captured; a few handfuls of dates might be plucked; but scarcely any local supplies would be available.  The sailing-boats, which were the only regular means of transport, were all delayed by the adverse winds.  Fortune returned at the critical moment.  By good luck on the first day of the march the north wind began to blow, and twelve days’ supplies, over and above those moved by camel and steamer, reached Dongola with the troops.  With this reserve in hand, the occupation of the province was completed, and although the army only existed from hand to mouth until the railway reached Kerma, no further serious difficulty was experienced in supplying them.

The account of the commissariat is now complete to the end of the Dongola Expedition; but it may conveniently be carried forward with the railway construction.  In the Abu Hamed phase the supplies were so regulated that a convoy travelling from Murat Wells along the caravan route arrived the day after the fight; and thereafter communications were opened with Merawi.  The unexpected occupation of Berber, following Abu Hamed, created the most difficult situation of the war.  Until the railway was forced on to Berber a peculiarly inconvenient line of supply had to be used; and strings of camels, scattering never less than 30 per cent of their loads, meandered through the rough and thorny country between Merawi and Abu Hamed.  This line was strengthened by other convoys from Murat and the approaching Railhead, and a system of boats and camel portages filtered the supplies to their destination.

Even when the railway had reached Dakhesh the tension was only slightly relaxed.  The necessity of supplying the large force at Berber, 108 miles from Railhead, still required the maintenance of a huge and complicated system of boat and camel transport.  Of course, as the railway advanced, it absorbed stage after stage of river and portage, and the difficulties decreased.  But the reader may gain some idea of their magnitude by following the progress of a box of biscuits from Cairo to Berber in the month of December 1897.  The route was as follows:  From Cairo to Nagh Hamadi (340 miles) by rail; from Nagh Hamadi to Assuan