i?8 WITH THE CAMEL CORPS UP THE NILE.

in search of the forage and water they stood so much in need of. Scores had died, and their bodies, lying about rotting in the sun, did not add to the beauty of the scene. Those picked out as fit to go were in an appalling state of thinness and sore backs, but there was no help for it. None of the saddles had enough padding for their diminished humps, yet they were crammed on as best they might, and added much to the sores already there. About 400 camels were enrolled in the baggage-train, and these, with the 300 of the escort, left the force behind with barely 100 (in an awful state of decay) for all purposes.

With the convoy and Sir C. Wilson's party gone, the grand total was reduced to about 54 officers and 870 men, including medical staff, commissariat, natives of all sorts, and the remainder of Gordon's Soudanese, besides about 120 wounded. As may be easily imagined, this did not give us many spare rifles, so there was all the more reason for entrenching ourselves securely. Down at the river the lines of a strong parapet were laid down round the hospital and stores, and every one was set to work on it. In our posi-