WARS OF THE NINETIES. 44 finished sooner only for the delays caused by insufficiency of transport for materials on the Lower Nile,and a temporary stoppage of the supply of sleepers caused by the Turkish war, the timber having been contracted for in the Sultan's dominions. On this account the work on the line had to be actually stopped for a fortnight. Nevertheless,the averagerate of laying the railway was a mile and a tenth per day. The best day's work was the laying of nearly three anda half milesofrails(6,050yards),besides As soon as the line was complete the Railway Corps, now over two thousand strong, was transferred to the works of a second or branch Soudanrailway, which had been begun shortly before this date, the necessary funds being supplied by England. The line was to form a junction with the original Soudan railway just outside Haifa ; it was then to run in a generally south-eastern direction across the desert to the Nile bank near Abu Hamed. Later, it was to be continued to Berber and AY TO " RAILHEAD." WORKMEN ON 'I HEIR beyond. When the line wa's begun its destined terminus at Abu Hamed, 213 miles from Haifa, wasin the hands of the enemy. The country to be traversed was an all but waterlessdesert, so utterly uninhabitedthat the stationson the line are only intended as points wherethe trains can pass each other, and engines can obtain fuel and water from the coal stores and water depots formed for the purpose. The first Soudan railway touched the river at various points, and ran alongit for a considerable part ofits length. The Haifa-AbuHamed line was a desert railway ortlyapproaching theriver at its start and finish. It was completed in seven months from the date of laying the first sleeper. It would have been the making of the bank on which they were placed.

For the first seventy miles all the water required for the engines and for the 2,t>oo men engaged on the works had to be brought each day from Wady Haifa in tanks placedon trucks. But, happily, a boring made at the 77th mile brought up a supply of water for the engines.

Water wasagain found by boring at the 126th mile. These discoveries greatly simplified the operationofgettingalineacrossthedesert,though evenwith thesetwopointsprovided for,considerable quantitiesof w.ater had still tobe conveyed along the line and stored in tanks at stations and at the railhead. Evaporation goes on so rapidly