68 WITH THE CAMEL CORPS UP THE NILE.

to Metemmeh. The 38th (South Stafford) were starting in boats for Merawi on the 28th, to act as advanced guard to Earle's river column ; this we knew was going up-stream as soon as it possibly could, since every day caused an appreciable diminution in the waters of the Nile, and rendered the upper cataracts more difficult. Our task therefore seemed to be to take Metemmeh, hold it till the river column could get round via Abu Hamed and Berber, and then advance in force on Khartoum.

In effect, on the 28th we got our orders to start in two days. The idea of the advance, officially communicated to us, was this : the chief necessary of a desert march being water, we were first to proceed to Gakdul wells (which lay some 100 miles into the desert), in sufficient force to overcome any resistance we should meet there, and leave a battalion (the Guards' Camel Regiment) there to entrench itself, and hold the wells at any cost. The remainder of the force was to return to Korti for sufficient troops and transport to advance the remaining seventy-six miles to Metemmeh, and