LEFT IN POSSESSION. 91 done in sixty-four hours, thirty- four hours on the move and thirty broken up into short halts ; the rate of travelling was therefore just under three miles an hour call it two and three-quarter miles, taking the average rate of camels at that ; this result always turned out fairly accurate.

Allowing Sir Herbert's baggage train half as much time again to get comfortably to Korti, the same back to Gakdul, and forty-eight hours to collect troops and stores at Korti, we considered that we ought to see them back in ten days at the outside, and then, hooray for the advance ! There was plenty to be done before they came back : forts to build, roads to make, camps, etc. to mark out, and reconnoitring to be done.

The men were told off in fatigues for the various duties, and splendidly they worked ; their shoe-leather never recovered it. Smooth roads were formed all about the enclosure by picking up the objectionable stones, and paths hacked in the rocks to the various points of interest, such as the forts and picquet stations. The forts rose slowly, inch by inch, and