The army had now passed beyond the scope of a camel, or other pack-animal, system of supply, except for very short distances, and it was obvious that they could only advance in future along either the railway or a navigable reach of the river, and preferably along both.  From the Dal Cataract near Kosheh there is a clear waterway at high Nile to Merawi.  To Kosheh, therefore, the railway must be extended before active operations could recommence.  A third condition had also to be observed.  For the expulsion of the Dervishes from Kerma and Dongola it was desirable that a flotilla of gunboats should co-operate with the land forces.  Four of these vessels —­the Tamai, El Teb, the Metemma, and the Abu Klea; and three steamers—­ the Kaibar, Dal, and Akasha, which it was proposed to arm—­had, since 1885, patrolled the river from Assuan to Wady Halfa, and assisted in protecting the frontier from Dervish raids.  All seven were now collected at the foot of the Second Cataract, and awaited the rise of the river to attempt the passage.  To strengthen the flotilla three new and very powerful gunboats had been ordered in England.  These were to be brought in sections over the railway to a point above the Second Cataract, and be fitted together there.  It was thus necessary to wait, firstly, for the railway to reach Kosheh; secondly, for the Nile to rise; thirdly, for the old gunboats to ascend the Cataract; fourthly, for the new gunboats to be launched on the clear waterway; and, fifthly, for the accumulation of supplies.  With all of these matters the Sirdar now busied himself.

The reconstruction of the railway to Akasha and its extension beyond this place towards Kosheh was pressed forward.  By the 26th of June Akasha was reached.  Thenceforward the engineers no longer followed an existing track, but were obliged to survey, and to make the formation for themselves.  Strong fatigue parties from the Egyptian and Soudanese battalions were, however, employed on the embankments, and the line grew daily longer.  On the 24th of July the first train ran across the battlefield of Firket; and on the 4th of August the railway was working to Kosheh.

Kosheh is six miles south of Firket, and consists, like most places in the ‘Military Soudan,’ of little more than a name and a few ruined mud-huts which were once a village.  On the 5th of July the whole camp was moved thither from the scene of the action.  The reasons were clear and apparent.  Kosheh is a point on the river above the Dal Cataract whence a clear waterway runs at high Nile to beyond Dongola.  The camp at Firket had become foul and insanitary.  The bodies of the dead, swelling and decaying in their shallow graves, assailed, as if in revenge, the bodies of the living.  The dysentery which had broken out was probably due to the ‘green’ water of the Nile; for during the early period of the flood what is known as ‘the false rise’ washes the filth and sewage off the foreshore all along the river, and brings down the green and rotting vegetation from the spongy swamps of Equatoria.  The water is then dangerous and impure.  There was nothing else for the army to drink; but it was undesirable to aggravate the evil by keeping the troops in a dirty camp.