WARS OF THE NINETIES. 136 belt of cultivated land along the Nile bank. Once they caught sight of a patrol of nine Dervish horsemen, but these galloped off to the southward as soon as they weresighted. Everything seemed to indicate that the enemy would not fight except under the walls of Khartoum. The Khalifa had only sent northwards a was sent forward from Um Teref to reconnoitre the enemy'spositions.

On this Monday afternoon Major Stuart-Wortley sent over word frort the east hank that his friendlies had had z, brush with the enemy's scouts, and had made five prisoners and taken a boat-load of grain. Next day there handful of mounted scouts to observe the Sirdar's advance.

was a skirmish on the west bank,in which the 2ist Lancers had their first sight of an enemy. In the early morning the whole armymarched fromUm Teref in battlearray, facing south, the camel corps and some of the cavalry guarding thedesert flank, the rest well out in front. The march was to be a short one,not morethaneight miles, and the troops were then to camp on the river hank, the line of bivouacs being a semicircle, its convex curve towards the desert, it?

inks resting on the river, and protected by the gunboats.

Deserters and refugees were now arriving in large numbers. Some came across the desert, marching by night and hiding in the daytime. Others floated down the river onlogs of woodor inflated water-skins, and were picked up by the gunboats. All told the same story. TheKhalifa, they said, had gathered a vast army north of Omdurman,and would sight on the KerreriHills. In order to test this information the gunboat Melik, under the command of Major Gordon,