WARS OF THE NINETIES. 186 He was answered both from her decks and by artillery andrifle-fire from the Dervish camp at Dem Zeki close by. The enemy had four small rifledcannon on the shore, and were beginning to make unpleasantly good practice with them, some of their shells flying low over the decks ol the Sultan. But Keppel had disabled the Sofia by putting a shell through her boiler, which exploded,sending up a great cloud of steam.

reach of the Nile that it had become a kind of preserve for these big animals, .vhich dread nothingso much as the approach of a steamer.

It was very hot by day, and there was a deluge of tropical rain nearly every night, so that the White Nile Expedition was anything but a pleasant trip for those who took part in it, crowded as they were on the narrow space afforded by the decks of stern-wheelers and OPERATIONS AFTER OMDURMAN.

Then,withthe rest of the gunboats helping him, he poured a heavy tire of shells and Maxim bullets into the Dervish position on shore. Their guns were soon silenced, and then the Nastrranin close to the shore,and,led by-Major Jackson, the nthSoudanese wadedthrough the reedy shallows, gained the bank, and,deploying into line, soon drove the last of the enemy's riflemen out of the bushes near the camp. It was a smart little tight, in which the army and the navyboth had their shave. It was a remarkable experience for Commander Keppel. Here he was, after thirteen years, in action against the Safia, the very steamer on board ol which oarges. On the Wednesday after leaving Khartoum there was some excitement on board the flotilla, for a number of Dervish deserters had come on board, and had been taken to the Dal to be interrogated by 'he Sirdar and Colonel Wingate. They reported that there was alarge camp of Mahdists under the Emir Said Sogheir some distance ahead, and that he had the gunboat Sofia with him.

Early nextmorning, near the village ofRenkh, the Safia wassighted lying near the river-bank, with eleven large Nile boats tied up beside her. Keppel at once steamedon in advance with his gunboat, the Sultan, and engaged the Sofia.