96 WITH THE CAMEL CORPS UP THE NILE.

captured and scattered a caravan bringing dates and stores for the Mahdi, and we soon had quite a respectable amount of prisoners. On one occasion an unfortunate native who was overtaken offered a Medjidie dollar, his little all, to Kitchener as a ransom !

News was also communicated from outside the valley by a heliograph, which signalled any unusual occurrence in any direction ; in fact, the only direction from which an unexpected enemy might arrive was that above the wells, towards the heart of the mountain-range.

Being certain that there ought to be more water somewhere in the hills, N and I one day followed up the torrent track above the wells. The scene in the rainy reason must be grand beyond description. The smooth round boulders, the uprooted mimosatrees, the occasional pot-holes in the rock, and the general aspect of the torrent bed, all bore witness to the destructive violence of the masses of water that tear down from the hills on to the plain below every summer. The natives report that on the vast gravelly plain of the Bayuda the rain-water reaches for a few days the depth of over two feet, but is