280 WITH THE CAMEL CORPS UP THE NILE.

Sometimes she brought a parson for Sunday services, though generally we did without one ; and by her means we were kept au fait with what was going on up-stream. Sometimes too, a few Mounted Infantry officers from Kurot, Lights from Shabadud, or Heavies from Hafir, would pay us a visit, and spend a day or two in the Dongola markets, buying provisions for their respective messes. Altogether, news circulated pretty freely along the river.

On one occasion we sent a picked crew of G.C.R. totry conclusions with the Heavies in whale-boat races. We were ignominiously defeated, but ascribed it to not knowing their course, and challenged them again. They came up to Dongola accordingly, and beat us again, by something like eight lengths. It is only fair, however,, to remark that our boat, the best we could get, was a square-sterned, broad-bottomed affair, which travelled wofully slowly, whilst they had the pick of the lot in the shape of something approaching a gig.

Not long after we had settled down at Dongola, an important addition arrived in the shape of Colonel Colborne, who had been acting as correspondent to the