296 WITH THE CAMEL CORPS UP THE NILE.

seven or eight of these were like ; suffice it to say they were all in palm-groves on the bank of the river.

Whilst we walked thus, our baggage went by boat, and sometimes caught us up at the haltingplaces ; generally it didn't. Anyway, it didn't matter, as cooking-pots and blankets came along with us on a camel or two, and the baggage was sure to turn up somehow. Some donkeys and a couple of ponies came too, besides a cacolet-camel for anybody who fell sick, so that the small column was well provided with transport. From Abri to Akasheh we went by boat, each in charge of a pair of Kroo-boys. It made my hair curl passing some of the rapids, but only two of our boats got stove in a little after all. The Dal cataract between these places had too little water for boats to pass, so we went round it on foot.

At Akasheh we left the river, not to see it again till Wady Haifa. Tanjour Road lay eleven miles on in the desert, and here we found Surtees of the Coldstream (and at that time of the Egyptian army) with a rest-camp, and a few Egyptian soldiers and camels