THE RECONOUEST OF THE SOUDAN. 31 formidable obstacles at high Nile, and the boats could pass them with their ownsteam-power.

place wasoccupied by the Soudanese brigade on August 23rd. Theyare saidto have lost twentynine men by sunstrokein theirmarch across the desert. This will give some idea of the hardships ofa Soudan summer campaign.

Three other and larger gunboats of a better type,armed withquick-firinggunsandMaxims and fitted with electric search-lights,had been built lor the expedition at Wivenhoe,near Colchester. They were taken to pieces, sent out as cargo to Alexandria,conveyedby rail to Ballia-na on the Lower Nile, laden on barges and towed up to Assouan,transferred totrucks on the Shellal railwayandreladenon otherbarges at theheadof the First Cataract, thenlanded at Haifaandconveyed by theSoudan railwaytoKosheh,where they were put together on the river bank and launched on the upper river. It was a strange journey for a flotilla to make. Unfortunately,only one was ready in time for the march to Dongola. Naval officers, with a party of RoyalMarine Artillerymen, came ouc to work the batteries of the gunboats, bothnew and old.

Even if the Dervishes had been disposed to make a serious stand in defence of Dongola, their chance of anything like a long resistance wasnegativedby the Sirdar's having withhim a powerful gunboat flotilla. The fight at Ferkeh would not have lasted,at it did, for two hours if theriver had been in high flood that Sunday morning, and four steamers had been sending a shower of shells and a hail of machine-gun bullets into the enemy's flank and rear, and threatening to sweep their line of retreat with this murderous fire. On the Upper Nile he who holds the river holds the country on both sides of it to an extent that is probably not the 1 ase on any other river. Until Berber is passed there is not a single tributary stream flowing into theNile. Except at the desert wells, which have usually only a scanty supply, every drop of drinking water must come out of the river. Only small parties can trust to the wells away fromits hanks. Where there is a belt of cultivated land the water is supplied by irrigation channels fed by sakkiyehs, or water-lifting wheels, on the Nile bank. To Stop these wheels is to force whoever wants water to come down to the edgeof the river for it. A few men may do this, but an army cannot draw water for its thousands 01 menandbeasts under the fire of a hostile fleet of gunboats, whose electric lights can watch the banks even during the hours of darkness. To retire along the riverside,with a gunboat flotilla on the flank or steaming ahead, would therefore bedestruction; andit wasa safe prediction that once the gunboats passed a Dervishposition it wouldbepromptly evacuated by the enemy.

The advance was further delayed by two unexpected causes. There was a severe outbreak of cholera, a disease which had never beforepenetrated to the Soudan,and, as ifevery obstacle was to be thrown in the way of the Sirdar's enterprise, those proverbiallyrainless deserts were suddenly swept by a series of tropical rainstorms that deluged the camps, turned every ravine and valley into a raging torrent, and in one night swept away miles of the new railway.

At length towardsthe end of August all was ready for the march upon Dongola. The gunboat flotilla had been assembled above the cataracts at Kosheh, under the orders of CommanderColville,R.N. The four old boats (the Tatnat, Abu Klca,ElTeh, andMctemucli), each armedwith a heavy gun behind a shield in the bow and a couple of machine guns (Maxims or Nordenfeldts), were ready for action. One of the new gunboats,ElZaffir (" the Victorious "), was completed,but wasdelayed by an accident to her machinery. But it hadbeen decided that she should be left to follow the flotilla when she was ready. The army had been strengthened by bringing up the North Staffordshire Regiment to the front and by forming a fourth infantry brigade under Major David, R.M.L.I., composed of the ist, 5th, and 16th Egyptians, the last being one of the new regiments of reservists. A large supply of stores had been collected at Kosheh railhead,anddepots of water in tanks had been placed at convenient points along the desert route across the bend of the Nile between Kosheh and Sadin Fenti. That On August 27th Lewis with the first brigade marched across the desert to Absarat. It was caught in the last of the storms that wrecked therailway, and the mensufferedseverely. The repairs on the line of communications led to a further delay. The advance was not resumed till the second week of September, and it was not till the 16ththat the whole army was concentratedat Fereig, just below the Third Cataract, ready for the attack on Dongola. TheDervishes reported to be in force in an entrenched position at Kerma, on the east bank of the Nile, a few miles above thecataract.

The little army, now about 13,000 strong,